Various Foreign Ducks. 
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upper neck; bill red ; cheeks and throat drab; lower neck and upper breast brown, shading into 
drab; breast and thighs black; back and wings dark glossy brown; tail black; around the vent 
black, with white spots ; feet and legs of a pinky flesh-colour. The female is rather smaller than 
the male, and less brilliant in plumage ; the marking being the same. 
“ The White-faced Whistling Duck ( Dendrocygna viduata ) is a very pretty bird, and much 
esteemed by fanciers, being mostly seen at poultry-shows in the class for ornamental water-fowl. 
The Viduata is not, however, so rare or pretty as the Autumnalis. Head from base of bill to 
behind the eye and under the jaw, white ; back of head, also back of neck, black ; a black band 
also running round the throat ; below the throat a patch of white ; bill black, except around the 
nail at tip, which is of a leaden colour ; front of neck chestnut ; lower part of back of neck slightly 
pencilled ; side of breast pencilled, the pencilling being black upon light brown or drab ; centre of 
breast and belly black ; thighs black ; centre of feathers on back and wings dark brown edged with 
drab ; tail black ; legs and feet lead-colour. The female is rather smaller than the male, and, 
although the markings are the same, the colours are not quite so brilliant.” 
THE BAHAMA DUCK ( Poecilonetta Bahamensis ) is occasionally shown, and is a pretty 
bird, the plumage being chiefly light brown pencilled with dark brown. There is an almost 
similar species found at the Cape of Good Hope. 
THE JAPANESE TEAL ( Querquedula forrnosd) is a most beautiful bird lately introduced, 
and has, we believe, never yet bred in captivity ; but as it appears in all its habits and some points in 
its general appearance to be allied to the Mandarin, this difficulty will however be probably over- 
come. The top of the drake’s head is black or dark grey, below which is a white streak just over the 
eye. From the eye descends nearly perpendicularly a black stripe, meeting a black patch under 
the throat, and enclosing a triangular white space in front of the face. Behind this stripe is another 
of white, behind which and backwards from the eye is a large crescent of bronze-green, the lower 
horns of which come forward and nearly meet in front of the breast. The breast is a light purple 
beautifully spotted with black, shading off to white on the under parts. The shoulders and flanks 
are a beautifully-pencilled silver-grey, with a broad white stripe or crescent on the shoulder at the 
same place as that on the Mandarin. The wing-spot is bronze-green, bordered above with brown 
and below with white. The tail and wings are brownish grey, but the shoulder or upper wing- 
coverts are very peculiar, being long and pointed like hackles, and falling over the wings. These 
hackle-feathers are black in the centre, edged on one side with brown and on the other with white, 
and give a very smart appearance. Under the tail is black. The female is a plain bird, not unlike 
the female Mallard. 
THE FALCATED DUCK ( Querquedula falcaria ) has similar hackle-like appendages to the 
wings. The drake is most beautifully pencilled on the body with black on a silver-grey ground ; 
the head purple beautifully glossed with green, and having a crest of the same colour ; the throat 
white, below which is a collar of green, and below that another ring of white. This bird too 
has never bred, and only one or two have ever reached this country, but in habits it is similar to the 
foregoing. In beauty we consider these two varieties rank next to the Carolinas and Mandarins 
Many of the wild British ducks have also been shown from time to time, and some of them 
are very beautiful, while they can be often procured of the dealers in Leadenhall Market, by those 
who have the opportunity, at much less expense than the foreign varieties. The wild Mallard 
