﻿72 ANATID.E. 



flying about the female invariably leads the way, being 

 closely followed by the male. 



The nests are placed in the holes and fissures of the 

 rocky banks of the rivers, in the forsaken holes of foxes and 

 other quadrupeds, in hollow trees or burrows of their own 

 contrivance. The construction of the nest is a loose fabric of 

 all sorts of stalks and sticks, and is lined with the down 

 supplied from the female's own feathering. 



The eggs are from eight to ten in number, and white 

 in colour, very highly polished, and resemble those of the 

 shieldrake very much in shape and size. As soon as the 

 young are hatched and dry, the parent carries them one 

 by one in her beak to the water's edge, where she watches 

 over them to the endangering of her own life. 



The flavour of the birds and eggs is so extremely fishy, 

 that few persons can endure them ; the eggs in particular 

 are said to be a great deal worse than the eggs of the sea- 

 gull. The Tartars insist upon their being poisonous. 



The entire length of the male bird is two feet three to 

 four inches ; the females somewhat less. 



The plumage of the male bird is as follows : the head 

 and neck are greyish- white ; the top of the head and cheeks 

 are tinged with rust-colour, the sides of the neck more rufous, 

 which colour increases in intensity down to the base of the 

 neck, where it is bounded by a black band with metallic 

 green reflections, narrow in front and broader at the 

 sides ; the chest, or crop is copper-coloured ; the breast, 

 belly and vent, back, and all the upper parts rust-red, 

 with exception of the tips of the long tertials, which are 

 pale yellow ; the lower part of the back, upper tail-coverts, 

 and tail black, with reflections of green ; lesser and mid- 

 dle wing-coverts white ; the secondary quills green, with 

 purple reflections ; quills black ; the legs are reddish-grey ; 



