DUCK. 'Wi 



Sarcelle de la Caroline, Bvf. ix. 280. 



Little Brown Duck, Gen. Syn. vi. 534. Cat. Car. i. pi. 98. 



THES is rather larger than a Teal; length sixteen inches. Bill 

 near one inch and a half long, and black ; head and neck green 

 gold, with a violet gloss in some lights ; behind each eye the 

 feathers are white, passing in a broad patch to the back of the head ; 

 the lower part of the neck all round, the breast, and under parts, 

 white ; onter scapulars white, forming a longitudinal band on each 

 side of the back, which, with the remainder of the scapulars, is 

 black ; lesser wing coverts dusky, edged with white ; the middle 

 ones white ; the greater, down the middle, white, but those on each 

 side black ; quills dusky black, some of the inner ones marked with 

 white on the inner webs ; tail cinereous, the three outer feathers 

 edged outwardly with white, the shape cuneiform ; legs orange, 

 claws black. 



Inhabits North America, found at New York in the winter, 

 migrating also as far as Carolina ; called in Georgia the Spirit 

 Duck ; frequents the ponds there, but is not common : is a most 

 difficult bird to shoot, as it dives in a moment at the flash of a gun ; 

 and as it frequently does this, and rises again at a great distance, is 

 called by some the Spirit Duck:* appears at Hudson's Bay, about 

 Severn River, in June ; and makes the nest in trees, in the woods, 

 near ponds. 



The Buffel-headed and Spirit Duck of authors seem to differ 

 only in the fullness of the plumage about the head, for in every other 

 respect they agree minutely. That figured by Catesby seems the same 

 as we usually see specimens of in cabinets, with the head feathers very 

 full; but in the British Museum is one with the head smooth, and 

 similar to that from which Mr. Edwards made his figure. 



To what extent this species is known on the Continent of Europe 

 we do not learn, but according to M. Beseke, it is met with on the 

 coasts of Livonia and Courland. 



* This said of the male.— Edwards, 

 VOL. X. Y Y 



