40 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
RED-HEADED DUCK. 
ANAS FERINA. 
[Plate IV. Vol.2.] 
Anas Ferina, Gmel. i. p. 530, No. 31. — Anas rufa, Id. 
p. -515. — Ind. Orn. p. 862, No. 77; p. 863, No. 78. — 
Rufous necked-Duck, Gen. Syn. in. p. 477, No. 32. — 
Pochard , Id. p. 523, No. 68. — Red-headed Duck, Law- 
son’s Carolina , p. 150. — Bewick ii. p. 320. — Arct. 
Zool. No. 491. Br. Zool. No. 284. — Le Millouin , 
Briss. vi. p. 384, No. 19, pi. 35. fig. 1; Le Millouin 
nois, Id. p. 389, A. young male? Le Millouin du 
Mexique, Id. p. 390, No. 20, female, Buff. ix. p. 216. 
PI. Enl. 803. — Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 669. — Wil- 
loughby, p. 367, § xi. — Montagu, Orn. Diet . — Phi- 
ladelphia Museum. 
This is a common associate of the Canvas-back, fre- 
quenting the same places, and feeding on the stems of the 
same grass, the latter eating only the roots ; its flesh is very 
little inferior, and it is often sold in our markets for the 
Canvas-back, to those unacquainted with the characteristic 
marks of each. Anxious as I am to determine precisely 
whether this species be the Red-headed Wigeon, Pochard, 
or Dun bird of England, I have not been able to ascertain 
the point to my own satisfaction; though I think it very 
probably the same, the size, extent, and general description 
of the Pochard agreeing pretty nearly with this. 
The Red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet 
six inches in extent; bill, dark slate, sometimes black, two 
inches long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, 
furnished with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides, 
flame-coloured; plumage of the head long, velvetty, and 
inflated, running high above the base of the bill; head, and 
about two inches of the neck, deep glossy reddish chesnut; 
rest of the neck and upper part of the breast black, spread- 
ing round to the back; belly white, becoming dusky 
towards the vent by closely marked undulating lines of 
black; back and scapulars, bluish white, rendered gray by 
numerous transverse waving lines of black; lesser wing 
coverts, brownish ash; wing quills, very pale slate, dusky 
at the tips; lower part of the back, and sides under the 
wings, brownish black, crossed with regular zig-zag lines 
of whitish; vent, rump, tail, and tail coverts, black; legs 
and feet, dark ash. 
The female has the upper part of the head dusky brown, 
rest of the head and part of the neck, a light sooty brown; 
upper part of the breast, ashy brown, broadly skirted with 
whitish; back, dark ash, with little or no appearance of white 
pencilling; wings, bill, and feet, nearly alike in both sexes. 
This Duck is sometimes met with in the rivers of North 
and South Carolina, and also in those of Jersey and New- 
York; but always in fresh water, and usually at no great 
distance from the sea. Is most numerous in the waters of 
the Chesapeake, and with the connoisseurs in good eating, 
ranks next in excellence to the Canvas-back. Its usual 
weight is about a pound and three-quarters, avoirdupois. 
The Red-head leaves the bay and its tributary streams in 
March, and is not seen until late in October. 
The male of this species has a large flat bony labyrinth on 
the bottom of the windpipe, very much like that of the 
Canvas-back, but smaller; over one of its concave sides is 
spread an exceeding thin transparent skin, or membrane. 
The intestines are of great width, and measure six feet in 
length. — Ih. 
From the New-England Galaxy. 
SOME PASSAGES FROM THE DIARY OF A 
SPORTSMAN. 
[Continued from page 21.] 
It is impossible that the Sportsman should be other 
than an admirer of nature. In all his solitary rambles, 
whether upon the wild and lonely hill-side, or in the 
heart of the pastoral valley; at the edge of the mirror-like 
lake, or along the borders of the mountain brook, — his eye 
is always filled with beautiful and picturesque objects. His 
ear soon becomes familiar with the light carol of every bird 
which inhabits the thicket or the forest; and his eye is soon 
made acquainted with the whole lovely family of flowers, 
which enamel the earth, and enrich the air with their wind- 
scattered perfume. There is not a wild flower that nods 
to him from the top of the verdant bank, or the vine-covered 
precipice, or a bird that salutes him with its voluble over- 
ture from its leafy dome, that he cannot recognize and call 
by name. The speckled turtle, that plunges from its black 
fortress into the pool, at the sound of his approaching step, 
or the glittering snake, which hastens to conceal itself 
beneath its bush, at his coming, are not unnoticed by him. 
He has an eye open to the observance of all rural objects, 
and an ear awake to the hearing of all woodland sounds. 
One of our most favourite places for ramble and sport, 
has been Mount Holyoke, the most romantic link in that 
chain of hills, which Nature has stretched along the west- 
ern borders of this state. At its base rolls the broad and 
fertilizing Connecticut. Behind it, hills after hills, like 
successive ranks of an advancing host, lift up their vapoury 
