540 WHITE-THROATED DUCK. 



wild state, the present species generally visits hedges and gardens. 

 It arrives in this country about the middle of April, and is often heard 

 singing in a thicket, or in the middle of a hedge ; sometimes it mounts 

 up in the air a little way, or flies from one hedge to another, singing all 

 the time. It is readily taken in a trap baited with a living caterpillar 

 or butterfly. One that I caught last spring sang the third day after 

 being in confinement, and continued to sing all through the summer ; 

 but this was most likely in consequence of a tame one being with it, 

 which also sang at the same time. In their native state, these birds 

 feed chiefly on small insects, and a few sorts of fruit, strawberries and 

 raspberries in particular ; they are very partial to the different species 

 of aphides, with which almost every tree is covered some time or other 

 in the summer ; they are also very fond of the smaller species of but- 

 terflies, and the common house-fly (Musca domestica ;) they soon take 

 to feed on bruised hemp-seed and bread, and also on bread and milk ; 

 I have known them to feed on it the day they were caught. Fresh 

 meat, both fat and lean, they also like very well for a change, and 

 the yolk of a boiled egg, and a roasted apple in winter. They peck 

 up a great quantity of small gravel, of which there should be always a 

 constant supply in their cage or aviary ; if they are without this, they 

 soon get unwell. Fresh water should also be given them every day 

 in a saucer or a pan, large enough for them to get into, as oftentimes 

 they wash themselves two or three times a day."* 



WHITE THROATED DUCK (Oidemia Leucocephala, Fleming. 



*Canard Couronn6, Temm. 2. p. 859.— Anas Leucocephalus, Gmel. Syst.l. p. 516. — 

 Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 858. — Oidemia Leucocephala, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 119. — 

 AnasMersaof Pallas, Reis. 2. p. 713.— Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 520.— White-headed 

 Duck, Lath. Syn. 6. p. 478.— Ural Duck, lb. 6. p. 514.— Weisskopfigi Ente, 

 Bechst. Tasschenb. Deut. 2. p. 444. — Meyer, Tasschenb. 2. p. 506. — Naum. 

 Vog. Nochter, t. 40. f. 79 and 80. correct figures of the male and female. — 

 Anatra DTverus, Sfor. degl. ucc. 5. p. 577. fig. of themale. — Mont. Supp. Diet. 



The figure of a duck, under the above name, is giyen in the second 

 volume of the British Zoology, t. 96, which our author was disposed 

 to consider a variety of the scoter, the female of that species having 

 been seen with the throat white. Temminck and Fleming, however, 

 both agree in giving it as a distinct species. The length is described 

 to be about twenty-two inches ; breadth thirty-four ; bill blue, with the 

 middle at the base hollow; irides yellow; feet greyish brown; crown, 

 nape, and lower part of the neck black ; front cheeks and throat white ; 

 breast, upper parts and sides dark red, waved with dusky; rump reddish 

 purple ; tail long, black, and conical, with the feathers grooved ; the 

 plumage below of a reddish white. The female has the crown and 



