594 PIED DUCK. 
a light reddish purple, or pale lake, except the gibbosity, which is black, 
and the two nails, which are of a pale light blue ; nostril, pervious, an 
oblong slit, placed nearly inthe middle of the upper mandible ; ; irides, 
dark brown; whole head, and half'of the neck, white; rest of the 
neck and breast, as well as upper part of the back, of a purplish brown, 
darkest where it joins the white ; all the feathers being finely tipped 
with pale brown; whole wing-coverts, very pale ash, or light lead 
color; primaries and secondaries, black ; tertials, long, tapering, cen- 
tred with black, edged with light blue, and usually fall over the wing; 
scapulars, cinereous brown; lower parts of. the back and rump, of the 
same light ash as the wing-coverts ; tail, rounded, blackish, consisting 
of sixteen feathers, edged and tipped broadly with white ; tail- -coverts, 
white ; belly and vent, whitish, intermixed with cinereous; feet and 
legs, of the same lake color as the bill. 
This specimen was a female; the tongue was thick ‘and fleshy, 
armed on each side with thirteen’ strong, bony teeth, exactly similar in 
appearance, as well as in number, to those on the tongue of the Snow 
Goose; the inner concavity of the upper mandible was also studded 
with rows of teeth. The stomach was extremely muscular, filled with 
some vegetable matter, and clear gravel. 
With this, another was shot, differing considerably in its markings, 
having little or no white on the head, rand being smaller; its general 
color, ¢ dark brown, intermixed with pale ash, and darker below, but.ev- 
idently of the same species with the other. 
‘ 
\ —~>——_ 
PIED DUCK.—ANAS LABRADORA.—Fige. 285. 
Arct. Zool. No. 488. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 497.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2858. 
FULIGULA LABRADORA. — Bonsrsrte.* 
Fuligula Labradora, Bonap. Synop. p. 391. 
Ts is rather a scarce species on our coasts, and is never met with 
on fresh-water lakes or rivers. It is called by some gunners the Sand 
Shoal Duck, from its habit of frequenting sand bars. Its principal 
food appears to be shell fish, which it procures by diving. The flesh 
is dry, and partakes considerably of the nature of its food. It is only 
seen here during winter ; most commonly early m the month of March, 
a few are observed in our market. Of their principal manners, place, 
or mode of breeding, nothing more is known. Latham observes, that 
a pair in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks were brought from Lab- 
rador. Having myself had frequent opportunities of examining both 
sexes of these birds, I find that, like most others, they are subject, 
when young, to a progressive change of color. The full-plumaged 
* The Prince of Musignano places this bird among the Fuligule. [have had no 
opportunity of seeing the bird itself, and cannot therefore speak, from examination, 
as to its station. It seems a true Sea Duck, and agrees in general habits with the 
Scaups and Pochards. — Ep. 
