How taken Description. 



vairneaux, and are caught by placing nets under 

 the water where these shells abound ; to obtain 

 which, the birds dive to a great depth, and thus 

 thirty or forty dozen are often taken in a tide. 

 They swallow the shells whole, which have been 

 found quite crumbled to powder among their ex- 

 crements. They are sometimes kept tame, and 

 feed upon soaked bread. Their flesh is far from 

 being agreeable, and is of so very fishy a taste 

 that, perhaps by way of mortification, it is al- 

 lowed to be eaten by Roman Catholics on fast 

 days. This species is also to be met with in 

 North America; and it abounds in the northern 

 parts of Europe, especially on the great lakes 

 and rivers of Siberia* 



THE HOOK-BILLED DRAKE 



GENERALLY weighs two pounds or np- 

 tvards, and is about two feet from the extremity 

 of the bill to the end of the tail, and in breadth 

 from the extension of each wing, near three feet. 

 The bill is crooked, of a palish green, except the 

 hook at the end, which is black; it is in length, 

 upwards of two inches. The upper part of the 

 neck, and the head, are of a dark green, with two 

 sm-all white speckled lines, one of which runs 

 from the upper part of the bill, over the eye to- 

 wards the back part of the head ; the other runs 

 from the bill to the lower part of the eye, around 

 which there is a circle of fine white feathers, 



