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ORD. III. GEN. VIII. MERGANSER. 



SPE. III. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 



PL 234. 



Mergus ferratdr. 

 L'Harle huppe. 



Lin. Syft. I. p. 208. 

 Br'tf. Orn. VI. p. 237. 



This bird weighs near two pounds: its breadth is thirty inches, length 

 twenty. The bill is three inches long, of a dark orange colour: eyes, red: 

 the head, and upper part of the neck, glorify black, changeable to blue and 

 green in different lights ; the feathers of the head, being long, form a beautiful 

 creft : lower part of the neck, and belly, white : bread, orange, fpotted with 

 black : lower part of the back, tail coverts, and vent, grey, marked with 

 zigzag lines of black : upper part of the back, black : on the moulder are a 

 few white feathers : the exteriour fcapulars are black; the interiour, white: 

 coverts on the ridge of the wings, black, then fucceeds a broad bar of white; 

 the greater coverts, half black half white : the fecondaries next the quill fea- 

 thers marked in the fame manner; the reft, white, edged on one fide with 

 black: quill feathers, and tip of the tail, black: legs, orange. 



In the female the creft is fcarcely perceptible, there is no orange on the 

 bread, and the reft of the colouring is dirty brown where the male is black. 



It breeds in the northern parts of Great Britain, and is faid to lay ten or 

 twelve white eggs, in the month of June. 



