382 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 



appear to be all paired, they fly northward in long lines, or broad fronts, 

 moving high or low according to the state of the weather, passing at times 

 at a considerable distance from the shores, but flying close to the points of 

 every cape, although they never pass over an isthmus however narrow. 

 Their flight is swift, well sustained, and accompanied with a well-marked 

 whistling of their wings. Being expert divers, it is difficult to kill them on 

 the water; and if you happen to wound one but slightly, I would advise you, 

 reader, to give up the chase, unless you have hit it while on the ice, in 

 which case you will find that it runs rather awkwardly. Their flesh is none 

 of the best, being dark, generally tough, and to the taste fishy; for which 

 reason they are now-a-days frequently brought to our markets plucked, with 

 the head and feet cut off, and called by the venders by all names excepting 

 old wives, squaws, noisy ducks, or south-southerlies. The food of this 

 species consists chiefly of shell-fish; but in the stomachs of those killed on 

 fresh water in Labrador, I found small fishes, and a quantity of grass and its 

 roots. 



From the great number of specimens which I have procured in our Mid- 

 dle Districts in winter, and those which I have seen killed during the love 

 season in the north, I am induced to think that the elongated feathers of the 

 tail of this species scarcely, if at all, differ in length at these different periods, 

 although some writers have said that in spring they are much longer than in 

 winter, in which latter season, however, I think the old males differ only in 

 the colour of their plumage from their state in spring. I have obtained 

 male specimens at New York and at Baltimore early in March, when they 

 were already much changed from their appearance in winter; but my friend 

 Bachman informs me that he has never seen one with any appearance of the 

 summer plumage at Charleston in South Carolina, where however, he adds, 

 this species is not common. 



I have represented two male birds, one in its full spring dress, the other 

 in that of winter. You will also find in the same plate the first figure ever 

 given of an adult female, accompanied with as many younglings as I could 

 conveniently introduce. Wilson gave the figure of a young male in the 

 first winter as that of a female. 



Long-tailed Dcck, Anas glacialis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 93. 



Fuligdla glacialis, Bonap. Syn., p. 395. 



Long-tailed Duck, Harelda glacialis, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 460. 



Long-tailed Deck, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 453. 



Long-tailed Duck, Fuligul a glacialis, Aud. Orn. Biog... vol. iv. p. 103. 



Male, 23, 29±-. Female, 15f, 26. 



Breeds from Labrador northward to the Arctic Seas. Abundant during 



