ANAS BOSCHAS (var.) CURVIROSTRA. 
HOOKED 'BILL DUCK, 
Hook-Billed Duck. Mont. Orn. Diet. Bewick Br. 
Birds, pt. 2. p. 803. 
In size thi^ variety exceeds tlie Common Mallard, like 
which it is subject to a great variety in colours ; it breeds 
with the common kinds, and in a few generations the cur- 
vature of the bill disappears ; it has been taken with other 
wild fowl in the decoys; our figure was drawn from a 
specimen sent from a decoy at Spaldiiig, to the London 
Market. 
Except in the Ornithones of the curious, the Hooked- 
Bill Duck is but rarely seen in England, though it is said 
to be common in Holland and Germany. A pair of these 
birds kept in a domesticated state, by a friend of the author's, 
were quite tame; yet they never associated, but for several 
successive years each bred with the other sex of the Com- 
mon Duck. 
