93 



LONG-TAILED DUCK. 

 ANAS GLACIALIS. 

 [Plate LXX.— Fig. 1, Male.\i 



Le Canard a longue quelle de Terre JVeuve, Bmss. YI, p. 382. 18. — ^Euff. IX, p. 202. — PL Enl. 1008, 

 ~Edw. ph 280. — Jlrct Zool. JV^o. 501.— Lath. Syii. Ill, p. 528. — Peale's Museum, JVo, 2810. 



THIS Duck is very generally known along the shores of the 

 Chesapeake Bay by the name of South Southerly ^ from the singu- 

 larity of its cry, something imitative of the sound of those words, 

 and also, that when very clamorous they are supposed to betoken 

 a southerly wind; on the coast of New Jersey they are usually 

 called Old Wives, They are chiefly salt water Ducks, and seldom 

 ramble far from the sea. They inhabit our bays and coasts dur- 

 ing the winter only; are rarely found in the marshes, but keep in 

 the channel, diving for small shell fish, which are theo^ principal 

 food. In passing to and from the bays, sometimes in vast flocks, 

 particularly towards evening, their loud and confused noise may 

 be heard in calm weather at the distance of several miles. Thev 

 fly very swiftly, take short excursions, and are lively restless birds. 

 Their native regions are in the north, where great numbers of them 

 remain during the whole year; part only of the vast family migra- 

 ting south to avoid the severest rigors of that climate. They are 

 common to the whole northern hemisphere. In the Orkneys they 

 are met with in considerable flocks, from October to April ; fre- 

 quent in Sweden, Lapland, and Russia ; are often found about St. 

 Petersburgh, and also in Kamtschatka. Are said to breed at Hud- 

 son's Bay, making their nest among the grass near the sea, like 

 the Eider Duck, and about the middle of June, lay from ten to 

 fourteen bluish white eggs, the size of those of a pullet. When 



VOL. VIII. A a 



