ANATID^E. 451 



the whole theory which we have elsewhere intimated on the natural arrangement 

 of the family. It is clear, from an inspection of Wilson's plate, that the true 

 0. nigra is also found in America, since the colouring- he has given to the bill 

 perfectly accords with the English specimens in the British Museum. In 0. nigra 

 the sides of the protuberance and a line in the middle are black, while the orange 

 spreads far beyond the nostrils towards the tip. In our new species, the whole 

 of the protuberance, on the contrary, is orange, and this colour does not extend 

 beyond the nostrils. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed at Hudson's Bay, lat. 57°, agreeing with others in the British Museum sent from Hudson's Bay. 



Colour and size closely resembling O. niyra, except in the bill, which has already been 

 described. Feet in the dead bird entirely black. 



Form, typical. Bill contracted on the sides of the nail. Nostrils opening half way 

 between the base and tip of the upper mandible*. 







Dimensions. 







Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin. 



Length, total .... 



. 19 







Length of tail from the base 



. 3 U 



„ of bill from rictus 



2 







,, of tarsus 



■ 1 2£ 



„ from rictus to end of nostril 



. 1 



H 



,, of middle toe 



. 3 



„ of wing .... 



8 



6 



„ of hind toe 



. 10 



— Sw. 



[210.] 1. Fuligula valisneria. (Bonap.) Canvas- back. 



Sub-family, Fuligulinae, Swains. Genus, Fuligula, Ray. 

 Canvas-back Duck (Anas valisneria). Wils., viii., p. 103, pi. 70, f. 3. 

 Anas valisneriana (Canvas-back Duck). Sab. Frank. Journ., p. 690. 

 Fuligula valisneria. Bonap. Syn., p. 392, No. 338. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan, May 3, 1827- 



Colour. — Region of the bill, top of the head, chin, base of the neck, and adjoining parts of 

 the breast and back, rump, upper and under tail coverts, pitch-black ; sides of the head and 

 the neck reddish-orange ; middle of the back, scapulars, wing coverts, tips of the secondaries, 

 tertiaries, flanks, posterior part of the belly, and thighs, greyish-white, finely undulated with 

 hair-brown ; primaries and their coverts hair-brown, their tips darkest ; secondaries ash-grey, 

 tipped with white ; the two adjoining tertiaries edged with black. Belly white, faintly undu- 

 lated on the medial line. In some specimens, the white parts are glossed with ferruginous. 

 Bill and legs blackish-brown. 



Form. — Bill lengthened, the depressed frontal angle longer, the nostrils farther from the 

 front, and the unguis differently shaped and smaller than in F. ferina ; the upper lamina 

 flat, cuneate, not prominent, and confined within the margin of the mandible. The bill and 



* In O. nigra the aperture of the nostrils is placed at one-third the length of the bill. 



* 3 M 2 



