94 



LONG-TAILED DUCK 



the young are hatched the mother carries them to the water in her 

 bill. The nest is lined with the down of her breast, which is ac- 

 counted equally valuable with that of the Eider Duck, were it to 

 be had in the same quantity.^ They are hardy birds, and excel- 

 lent divers. Are not very common in England, coming there only 

 in very severe winters ; and then but in small straggling parties ; 

 yet are found on the coast of America as far south at least, as 

 Charleston in Carolina, during the winter. Their flesh is held in 

 no great estimation, having a fishy taste. The down and plumage, 

 particularly on the breast and lower parts of the body, are very 

 abundant, and appear to be of the best quality. 



The length of this species is tw( nty two inches, extent thirty 

 inches; bill black, crossed near the extremity by a band of orange; 

 tongue downy; iris dark red; cheeks and frontlet dull dusky drab, 

 passing over the eye, and joining a large patch of black on the 

 side of the neck, which ends in dark brown ; throat and rest of the 

 neck white; crown tufted, and of a pale cream color; lower part 

 of the neck, breast, back, and wings black; scapulars and tertials 

 pale bluish white, long and pointed, and falling gracefully over 

 the wings ; the white of the lower part of the neck spreads over 

 the back an inch or two, the white of the belly spreads over the 

 sides, and nearly meets at the rump ; secondaries chesnut, form- 

 ing a bar across the wing; primaries, rump, and tail coverts black; 

 the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remarkably pointed, the 

 two middle ones nearly four inches longer than the others ; these, 

 with the two adjoining ones, are black, the rest white ; legs and 

 feet dusky slate. 



On dissection, the intestines were found to measure five feet 

 six inches. The windpipe was very curiously formed; besides the 

 labyrinth, which is nearly as large as the end of the thumb, it has 

 an expansion immediately above that, of double its usual diame- 



* Latham. 



