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O R D. III. GEN. XI. DUCK. 



SPE. II. KING DUCK. 

 PI. 246. 



Anas fpeftabilis. Lin. Syji. I. p. 195. 



Le Canard de la Baie de Hudfon. Brif. Om. VI. p. 365. 



This fpecies is nearly as large as the eider duck. The bill is of an orange colour ; and 

 at the bafe is a Angular protuberance of the fame colour, extending to the top of the fore- 

 head, divided down the middle by a line of black velvet feathers, and furrounded by 

 fimilar feathers, which pafs likewife beyond the eye : at the bafe of the upper mandible 

 is a pea-green angular mark : from the under mandible a ftripe of black pafles down on 

 each fide of the throat : the hind part of the head, and back part of the neck, are pale 

 grey : throat, and fore part of the neck, white : back, breaft, tail, and under parts, black : 

 wings, dark brown : lefs wing coverts, and rump, white : legs, dull orange. 



The female is lefs than the male. The general colour of her feathers is brown, with 

 darker middles to each ; the head, and neck, paleft : part of the lefs wing coverts have 

 white tips. 



This bird makes its neft on the fide of unfrequented frefh waters, lays five or fix eggs, 

 and lines the neft with down. This is not peculiar, however, to the king and eider 

 ducks, for the reft of the genus in general do the fame ; not for the warmth of the down 

 to the eggs only, but to cover and conceal the eggs, when the female is abfent in queft 

 of food. The king duck is plentiful in the northern parts of America, common in 

 Greenland, and fometimes met with in the weftern iflands of Scotland. Its down is faid 

 to be equally valuable with that of the eider duck. 



