540 
WHITE-THROATED DUCK. 
wild state, the present species generally visits hedges and gardens. 
It arrives in this country about the middle of April, and is often heard 
singing in a thicket, or in the middle of a hedge ; sometimes it mounts 
up in the air a little way, or flies from one hedge to another, singing all 
the time. It is readily taken in a trap baited with a living caterpillar 
or butterfly. One that I caught last spring sang the third day after 
being in confinement, and continued to sing all through the summer ; 
but this was most likely in consequence of a tame one being with it, 
which also sang at the same time. In their native state, these birds 
feed chiefly on small insects, and a few sorts of fruit, strawberries and 
raspberries in particular ; they are very partial to the different species 
of aphides, with which almost every tree is covered some time or other 
in the summer ; they are also very fond of the smaller species of but- 
terflies, and the common house-fly {Musca domestica f) they soon take 
to feed on bruised hemp-seed and bread, and also on bread and milk ; 
I have known them to feed on it the day they were caught. Fresh 
meat, both fat and lean, they also like very well for a change, and 
the yolk of a boiled egg, and a roasted apple in winter. They peck 
up a great quantity of small gravel, of which there should be always a 
constant supply in their cage or aviary ; if they are without this, they 
soon get unwell. Fresh water should also be given them every day 
in a saucer or a pan, large enough for them to get into, as oftentimes 
they wash themselves two or three times a day.”* 
WHITE THROATED DUCK {Oidemia Leucocejf>hala, Fleming. 
*Canard Couronn6,Tewjm. 2.p. 859. — AnasLeucocephalus, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 516. — 
Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 858. — Oidemia Leucocephala, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 119. — 
Anas Mersaof Pallas, Reis. 2. p. 713. — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 520. — White-headed 
Duck, Lath. Syn. 6. p. 478. — Ural Duck, lb. 6. p. 514. — Weisskopfigi Ente, 
Bechst. I'asschenb. Deut. 2. p. 444. — Meyer, Tasschenh. 2. p. 506. — Naum. 
Vdg. Nochter, t. 40. f. 79 and 80. correct figures of the male and female. — 
Anatra D’lverus, Sto?’. degl. ucc. 5. p. 577. fig. of themale. — Mont. Supp. Diet. 
The figure of a duck, under the above name, is given in the second 
volume of the British Zoology, t. 96, which our author was disposed 
to consider a variety of the scoter, the female of that species having 
been seen with the throat white. Temminck and Fleming, however, 
both agree in giving it as a distinct species. The length is described 
to be about twenty-two inches ; breadth thirty-four ; bill blue, with the 
middle at the base hollow; irides yellow; feet greyish brown; crown, 
nape, and lower part of the neck black ; front cheeks and throat white ; 
breast, upper parts and sides dark red, waved with dusky; rump reddish 
purple ; tail long, black, and conical, with the feathers grooved ; the 
plumage below of a reddish white. The female has the crown and 
