446 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Form. — Bill particularly short, being not so long as the head, armed with lamince resem- 

 bling those of the Mallard. Plumage of the nape somewhat lengthened. Wings above 

 an inch shorter than the acutely-pointed tail, which consists of fourteen feathers. 



The female has the upper plumage dark liver-brown, edged and remotely barred with pale 

 brown and white. The intermediate wing coverts are merely edged with white, and there is 

 no green on the head. Tail shorter and not so tapering. Total length about two inches 

 less than the male. 











Dimensions 



















Of the male. 















Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin. 



Igtl 



i, total 



23 







Length of bill above 



1 



5 



Length of middle toe 



1 10 



53 



of tail 



5 



G 



„ of bill to rictus 



. 1 



9 



,, of middle nail 



• 4i 



55 



of folded wing 



10 



3 



,, of tarsus . . 



1 



C 





— R. 



[204.] 1. Dendronessa sponsa. (Nobis.) Summer Duck. 



Sub-family, Anatinas, Swains. Genus, Dendronessa, Richauds. Swains. 



Summer Duck. Edw., pi. 101. Penn. Arct. ZooL, ii., p. 562, No. 493. Wils., viii., p. 97, pi. CO, f. 3. 



Anas sponsa. Sab. Frankl. Jwm., p. 702. Bonap. Syn., No. 328. 



Ansee-awmo. Chippeways. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed at Cumberland House, lat. 54°, June, 1827- 



Colour. — Head above and space between the eye and bill glossy dark-green ; cheeks and 

 a large patch on the sides of the throat purple, with blue reflexions ; pendant occipital crest 

 of green and auricula-purple, marked with two narrow white lines, one of them terminating 

 behind the eye, the other extending over the eye to the bill ; sides of the neck purplish-red, , 

 changing on the front of the neck and sides of the breast to brown, and there spotted with 

 white. Scapulars, wings, and tail, exhibiting a play of duck-green, purple, blue, and velvet- 

 black colours ; interscapulars, posterior part of the back, rump, and upper tail coverts, 

 blackish-green and purple; several of the lateral coverts reddish-orange ; a hair-like, splendent, 

 reddish-purple tuft on each side of the rump ; the under coverts brown. Chin, throat, a 

 collar round the neck, a crescentic bar on the ears, the middle of the breast, and whole 

 of the abdomen, white. Flanks yellowish-grey, finely undulated with black; the tips of the 

 long feathers, and also of those on the shoulder, broadly barred with white and black. Inner 

 wing coverts white, barred with brown. Almost all the coloured plumage shows a play of 

 colours with metallic lustre. Bill red ; a space between the nostrils, its tip, margins, and 

 lower mandible, black. Legs orange-coloured. 



Form. — Bill shorter than the head ; considerably narrowed towards the tip, like that of 

 the Eider ; its height at the rictus greater than its width ; its frontal angles prolonged. 

 Mandibles strongly toothed. Unguis strong, arched or hooked. Nostrils large, pervious, 



