79 
WESTERN DUCK. 
Fuligula dispar, Gmel. 
PLATE CCCCVIL— Males. 
This beautiful species, which was discovered by Steller on the north- 
west coast of America, has never been known to visit our Atlantic shores. 
So very scarce indeed is it, that all my exertions to obtain a specimen have 
failed. It is surprising that it was not procured by any of the great navi- 
gators and travellers who have visited the northern and western coast within 
these fifteen years. As it has been acknowledged, however, as belonging 
to our Fauna, I have introduced a figure of it taken by my son John 
Woodhouse, from a beautiful specimen in the Museum of Norwich, in 
England. It is said to have been shot at Yarmouth, in the county of Nor- 
folk, in the winter of 1830. 
Anas dispar and Anas Stelleri, Gmel. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 535, 518. 
Fuligula Stelleri, Bonap. Syn., p. 394. 
Western Duck, Fuligula dispar , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 253. 
Male, 16; wing, 81. 
North-west coast. 
Adult Male. 
Bill shorter than the head, deeper than broad at the base, depressed 
towards the end, which is rounded. Upper mandible with the dorsal line 
straight and sloping in the middle, then slightly concave, at the end 
decurved ; the ridge broad and flat at the base, afterwards convex, as are 
the sides, the unguis elliptical. Nostrils sub-basal, oblong. Lower mandi- 
ble flat, with the angle long and rather narrow, the unguis elliptical. 
Head large, compressed ; neck rather short and thick. Feet short, stout, 
placed rather far behind ; tarsus very short, compressed, reticulate with a 
series of larger scales in front. Hind toe small, with a free membrane 
beneath; anterior toes longer than the tarsus, connected by reticulated 
membranes, the inner with a narrow lobed marginal membrane ; the third 
longest, the fourth nearly equal ; all covered above with numerous short 
scutella. Claws small, arched, obtuse. 
Plumage dense, soft, blended. Wings of moderate length, pointed ; the 
