218 DUCK. 



In August they lose their feathers, and not being able to fly, 

 the natives of Iceland and Kamtschatka hunt them with dogs, which 

 catch them by the neck, and easily secure their prey. In the last 

 named place they are also killed with clubs: the eggs are accounted 

 good food ; and the flesh is much esteemed by the inhabitants, 

 especially that of young birds; insomuch that in summer or winter 

 no entertainment is made without one.* 



The general use of the feathers is well known, and the skins of 

 the body worn for garments ; besides which, those of the legs, taken 

 off" whole, are made into purses, appearing not unlike shagreen. 

 The Venetians and Neapolitans turn the feathers of this and the 

 Mute Species to another account, by dying those of the belly, for 

 the purpose of making artificial flowers. 



However this and the Mute Species may be alike in plumage, 

 they differ within most essentially, in respect to the structure of the 

 trachea or windpipe. In most birds, as well as in the Mute Swan, 

 the keel-shaped process of the breast bone is thin, and sharp, but in 

 the Whistling one it is very broad and hollow. The windpipe in the 

 female, first enters this cavity for about three inches, when it makes 

 a turn back, and returns at the place it first entered, after which it 

 passes into the chest. In the male, however, it continues the whole 

 length of the keel, down to the sternum. f This circumstance has 

 been noticed by many authors, but as words are scarcely sufficient to 

 convey a just idea without engravings, the reader may be referred to 

 the Philos. Trans, where Dr. Parsons has given a good representa- 

 tion, or the Lin. Trans, above referred to.J It is perhaps from this 

 structure that the bird is enabled to produce so strong a voice ; 

 whereas in the Mute, or Tame Species, the windpipe enters at once 

 into the lungs, and the utmost noise the bird can make is a mere hiss. 

 I find this Species mentioned under the name of Elk, among the 



* This was not the case when Capt. Cook visited that place. See Last Voy. iii. p. 347. 

 t In the female the trachea is about six inches shorter than in the male. 

 % See also the Sceleton of this bird with the trachea in situ, in Blasii Anat. 4to. 1681. 

 pi. 42. 



