KING DUCK. 277 



culiar gracefulness of its flight, and the manner in which it frequently 

 remains suspended in the air, fixed, as it were, to one spot, by a quiver- 

 ing- play of the limbs scarcely perceptible."* 



KIDDAW.— A name for the Willock. 



KILLIGREW. — A name for the Chough. 



KING DUCK (Somateria spectabilis, Fleming.) 



Anas spectabilis, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 195. 5. — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 907 Lath. Ind. 



Orn. 2. p. 845. 36.— Le Canard a tete grise, Buff. Ois. 9. p. 253 — 7>m?w.Man.. 



d'Orn. 2. p. 851 Anas freti Hudsonis, Briss. 6. p. 365. 15.— Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 



458.— Grey-headed Duck, Edw. t. 154.— King Duck, Arct. Zool. 2. No. 481. 



—Lath. Syn. 6. p. 473.— Le turn's Br. Birds, 7. t. 245 King Eider, Flem. Br. 



Anim. p. 120._Trans. Linn. Soc. 12. pi. 30. fig. 1. 2. (Trachea). 



This species is not much inferior in size to the eider duck. The 

 bill is almost two inches long, of an orange-colour ; at the base of the 

 upper mandible is a ridged protuberance, flat on the top, and compressed 

 on the sides, but divided into two, the elevated parts velvety black, 

 passing on each side to the eyes ; the crown of the head and nape are 

 pale ash-colour ; at the base of the upper mandible the feathers are 

 pea-green, passing backwards on each side the neck, and taking in half 

 the eye; beneath which, and round to the chin, the feathers are of a 

 dirty white ; but here the two colours are blended, and the white is 

 lost by degrees in the green ; under the chin is a black mark, diverging 

 like the letter V inverted : the rest of the neck and breast are whitish ; 

 the middle of the back, the belly, and vent, black ; wings dusky ; on 

 the middle of the coverts is a patch of white ; quills black ; the second- 

 aries curve downwards over the quills ; the shafts deep ferruginous, on 

 each side the outer ones a patch of white ; the tail is cuneiform, short, 

 and black ; legs dusky ; *the windpipe, according to Captain Sabine, is 

 precisely like that of the eider duck.* 



The female is less ; the protuberance on the bill not so large, nor so 

 high-coloured, but the feathery ridge on the top is broader ; the whole 

 plumage brown, the middle of each feather dusky ; six of the lesser 

 quills are tipped with white, which forms a line of white on the wing ; 

 the rest of the quills and tail brown. 



The young birds do not get the gibbosity of the bill, nor the males 

 their mature plumage, *according to Captain Sabine, for four years.* 

 These birds are subject to vary a little in their several changes, both 

 with regard to the colour of their bill and plumage ; they are sometimes 

 found with a little white on the hind part of the head and on the back. 

 *Mr. Bullock found the nest on a rock overhanging the sea, at Papa 

 Westra, in the Orkneys, in June.* 



