SPECIES 15. ANAS FUSCA. 
VELVET DUCK. 
[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 3. Male.} 
Le grande Macreuse, Briss. vi, p. 423, 29. — Buff, ix, p. 242. — 
PL Enl. 956. — .drct. Zool. No. 482. — Bf.wick, ii, p. 286. — 
Lath. Syn. iii, p. 482. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2658, Female.* 
This and the following are frequently confounded together 
as one and the same species by our gunners on the sea coast. 
The former, however, differs in being of greater size; in hav- 
ing a broad band of white across the wing; a spot of the same 
under the eye, and in the structure of its bill. The habits of 
both are very much alike; they visit us only during the winter; 
feed entirely on shell fish, which they procure by diving; and 
return to the northern regions early in spring to breed. They 
often associate with the Scoters, and are taken frequently in the 
same nets with them. Owing to the rank fishy flavour of its flesh, 
it is seldom sought after by our sportsmen or gunners, and is 
very little esteemed. 
The Velvet Duck measures twenty-three inches in length, 
and two feet nine inches in extent, and weighs about three 
pounds; the bill is broad, a little elevated at the base, where it 
is black, the rest red, except the lower mandible, which is of a 
pale yellowish white; both are edged with black, and deeply 
toothed; irides pale cream; under the eye is a small spot of white; 
general colour of the plumage brownish black, the secondaries 
excepted, which are white, forming a broad band across the 
wing; there are a few reflections of purple on the upper plu- 
* Jlnas Fusca, Gmel. Syst. i, p. 507, No. 6. — Ind. Orn. p. 848, No. 44. — Ca- 
nard double Macreuse, Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 858. 
