REDsHEADED DUCK. 607 
of a pale drab; neck, dull brown; breast, as far as the black extends 
on the male,,dull brown, skirted in places with pale drab ; back, dusky 
white, crossed with fine, waving lines; belly, of the same dull white, 
pencilled like the back; wings, feet, and bill, as ir the male; tail- 
coverts, dusky ; vent, white, waved with brown. 
The windpipe of the male has a large, flattish, concave labyrintn, the 
ridge of which is covered with a thin, transparent membrane ; where 
the trachea enters this, it is very narrow, but immediately above swells 
to-three times that diameter. The intestines are wide, and measure 
five feet in length. | 
RED-HEADED DUCK.— ANAS FERINA ? — Fie. 291. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2710. 
FULIGULA FERINA, —Srernens.* 
Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. p. 193.—Fuligula ferina, Bonap. Synop. p. 392.— North. 
Zool. ii. p. 451. — Nyroca ferina, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 108.— Le Canard miloun, 
Temmn. ‘Mien. it. 868.'— Pochard, or Red-headed Widgeon, Mont. Ornith. Dict. 
ii. and Supp. Bew: Br. Birds, ii. p. 356. —‘Red-headed Widgeon, Sedby’s Ilust. 
Br. Ornith. pl. 63, fig. 1. 
T urs is a common associate of the Canvass-Back, frequenting the 
same places, and feeding on the stems of the same grass, the latter 
eating only the roots ; its flesh is very little inferior, and is ‘often sold 
in our markets for the Canvass-Back to those unacquainted with the 
characteristic marks of each. Anxious as I am to determine precisely 
whether this species be the Red-headed Widgeon, Pochard, or Dun 
‘Bird + of England, I have not been able to ascertain the point to my 
own satisfaction, though [ think it very probably the same, the size, 
extent, and general description of the Pochard, agreeing pretty nearly 
with this. g 
The Red-Head 1s twenty inches in length, and two feet six inches 
m extent; bill, dark slate, sometimes black, two inches long, and 
seven cighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished with a large, 
broad nail at the extremity; irides, flame colored; plumage of the 
head, long, velvety, and inflated, running high above the base of the 
bill; head and about two inches of the neck, deep glossy reddish 
chestnut ; rest of the neck and upper part of the breast, black, spread- 
ing round to the back; belly, white, becoming dusky towards the vent 
by closely-marked, ‘undulating lines of black; back and scapulars, 
bluish white, rendered gray by numerous transverse, waving lines of 
black; lesser wing-coverts, brownish ash ; wing-quills, very pale slate, 
‘dusky at the tips; lower part of the back and sides under the wings, 
* A well-known Duck, common to both continents, keeping to the sea or large 
lakes, and only in very severe winters wandering to any extent inland, Some- 
times seen in the decoys , but very selcvim taken, from their expertness in diving 
under the tunnel. — Ep. htt - 
+ Local names given to + ne and the sume Duck. It is also called the Poker. 
* 
