LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
93 
appear to be all paired, they fly northward in long lines, or broad fronts, 
moving high or low according to the state of the weather, passing at times 
at a considerable distance from the shores, but flying close to the points of 
every cape, although they never pass over an isthmus, however narrow. 
Their flight is swift, well sustained, and accompanied with a well-marked 
whistling of their wings. Being expert divers, it is difficult to kill them 
on the water ; and if you happen to wound one but slightly, I would advise 
you, reader, to give up the chase, unless you have hit it while on the ice, 
in which case you will find that it runs rather awkwardly. Their flesh is 
none of the best, being dark, generally tough, and to the taste fishy ; for 
which reason they are now-a-days frequently brought to our markets plucked, 
with the head and feet cut off, and called by the venders by all names 
excepting old wives, squaws, noisy ducks, or south-southerlies. The food 
of this species consists chiefly of shell-fish ; but in the stomachs of those 
killed on fresh water in Labrador, I found small fishes, and a quantity of 
grass and its roots. 
From the great number of specimens which I have procured in our Mid- 
dle Districts in winter, and those which I have seen killed during the love 
season in the north, I am induced to think that the elongated feathers of the 
tail of this species scarcely, if at all, differ in length at these different 
periods, although some writers have said that in spring they are much 
longer than in winter, in which latter season, however, I think the old 
males differ only in the colour of their plumage from their state in spring. 
I have obtained male specimens at New York and at Baltimore early in 
March, when they were already much changed from their appearance in 
winter ; but my friend Bachman informs me that he has never seen one 
with any appearance of the summer plumage at Charleston in South Caro- 
lina, where, however, he adds, this species is not common. 
I have represented two male birds, one in its full spring dress, the other 
in that of winter. You will also find in the same plate the first figure ever 
given of an adult female, accompanied with as many younglings as I could 
conveniently introduce. Wilson gave the figure of a young male in the 
first winter as that of a female. 
Long-tailed Duck, Anas glacialis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 93. 
Fuligula glacialis, Bonap. Syn., p. 395. 
Long-tailed Duck, Rarelda glacialis , Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 
460. 
Long-tailed Duck, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 453. 
Long-tailed Duck, Fuligula glacialis , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 103. 
Male, 23, 29§. Female, 15f, 26. 
Breeds from Labrador northward to the Arctic Seas. Abundant during 
