DUCK. 139 



yellowish green ; irides hazel ; the head and upper part of the neck 

 deep glossy green, bounded below with a white circle, which almost 

 surrounds the neck ; the lower part of the neck before, and the breast, 

 dull purplish ; the back is brown ; the sides and scapulars white, marked 

 with numerous small undulated lines of brown ; the rump, upper 

 and under tail coverts, black ; on the wing 1 coverts is a transverse 

 streak of white, edged with another of black ; beneath which is the 

 speculum, of a fine purplish or violet blue, on the secondary quills, 

 which are shaded to a black near the ends, and tipped with white, and 

 forms another narrow line of this last colour on the wings ; the belly is 

 pale grey, minutely speckled with light brown in undulated lines ; the 

 tail consists of twenty feathers, the four middle ones are of a glossy 

 greenish black, and curve upwards in a singular manner, and so con- 

 nected as to appear only as two feathers ; the others are strait, pointed, 

 and of a greyish brown, margined with white. 



The female is not so large, and of a rusty brown, spotted with dusky 

 black ; the speculum on the wing is like the male ; but none of the 

 tail feathers are curved ; the legs of both sexes are orange. 



The Duck breeds on many of our rivers and lakes, sometimes at a 

 considerable distance from the water. It scrapes together a little of 

 such vegetables as are contiguous for a nest, and lays from ten to 

 eighteen eggs of a bluish white. At the time of incubation, the female 

 plucks the down from her breast to line the nest, and frequently covers 

 the eggs when she leaves them. 



It frequently happens that a large variety of this bird is caught in 

 our decoys, or shot by the sportsman ; but these are only half-domesti- 

 cated Ducks, which are obliged to leave the canals or pieces of water 

 belonging to private persons, when they become frozen. These are 

 called Rouen Ducks. 



It is observable in most kinds of birds whose young leave the nest as 

 soon as hatched, that they deposit their eggs on the ground. There 

 are, however, some instances in which this species, the sheldrake, and 

 perhaps others, occasionally vary in this particular. 



We have been assured, by a person of undoubted veracity, that a 

 half-domesticated Duck made a nest in Rumford Tower, hatched her 

 young, and brought them down in safety to a piece of water at a con- 

 siderable distance. Others have been known to breed in trees ; and we 

 recollect the nest of this bird being found in the head of an old pollard 

 willow impending the water, from whence the young might readily 

 drop unhurt into their natural element. * Mr. Tunstall mentions one, at 

 Etchingham, in Sussex, which was found sitting upon nine eggs, on an 



