KING DUCK. 
277 
culiar gracefulness of its flight, and the manner in which it frequently 
remains suspended in the air, fixed, as it were, to one spot, by a quiver- 
ing- play of the limbs scarcely perceptible.”* 
KIDDAW. — A name for the Willock. 
KILLIGREW. — A name for the Chough. 
KING DUCK (^Somateina spectahilis^ Fleming.) 
Anas speclabilis, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 195. 5. — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 907. — Lath. Tni!. 
Orn. 2. p. 845. 36. — Le Canard a tete grise, BnjJ'. Ois. 9. p. 253. — Temm. Man. 
d’Orn. 2. p. 851. — Anas freti Hudsonis, Briss. 6. p. 365. 15. — Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 
458. — Grey-headed Duck, Edw. t. 154. — King Duck, Arct. Zool. 2. No. 481. 
— Lath. Syn. 6. p. 473. — Lewms Br. Birds, 7. t. 245. — King Eider, Flem. Br. 
Anim. p. 120. — Trans. Linn. Soc. 12. pi. 30. fig. 1. 2. (Trachea). 
This species is not much inferior in size to the eider duck. The 
bill is almost two inches long-, of an orang-e-colour ; at the base of the 
upper mandible is a ridged protuberance, flat on the top, and compressed 
on the sides, but divided into two, the elevated parts velvety black, 
passing- on each side to the eyes ; the crown of the head and nape are 
pale ash-colour ; at the base of the upper mandible the feathers are 
pea-green, passing backwards on each side the neck, and taking in half 
the eye ; beneath which, and round to the chin, the feathers are of a 
dirty white ; but here the two colours are blended, and the white is 
lost by degrees in the green ; under the chin is a black mark, diverging 
like the letter V inverted : the rest of the neck and breast are whitish ; 
the middle of the back, the belly, and vent, lilack ; wings dusky ; on 
the middle of the coverts is a patch of white ; quills black ; the second- 
aries curve downwards over the quills ; the shafts deep ferruginous, on 
each side the outer ones a patch of white ; the tail is cuneiform, short, 
and black ; legs dusky ; *the windpipe, according to Captain Sabine, is 
precisely like that of the eider duck.* 
The female is less ; the protuberance on the bill not so large, nor so 
high-coloured, but the feathery ridge on the top is broader ; the whole 
plumage brown, the middle of each feather dusky ; six of the lesser 
quills are tipped with white, which forms a line of white on the wing ; 
the rest of the quills and tail brown. 
The young birds do not get the gibbosity of the bill, nor the males 
their mature plumage, *according to Captain Sabine, for four years.* 
These birds are subject to vary a little in their several changes, both 
with regard to the colour of their bill and plumage ; they are sometimes 
found with a little white on the hind part of the head and on the back. 
*Mr. Bullock found the nest on a rock overhanging the sea, at Papa 
Westra, in the Orkneys, in June.* 
