PIED DUCK. 
97 
wing-coverts, and secondaries ; the primaries, lower part of the 
breast, whole belly, and vent, are black; tail pointed, and of a 
blackish hoary color; the fore part of the legs, and ridges of the 
toes, pale whitish ash ; hind part the same, bespattered with black- 
ish, webs black ; the edges of both mandibles are largely pecti- 
nated. In young birds, the whole of the white plumage is gene- 
rally strongly tinged with a yellowish cream color; in old males 
these parts are pure white, with the exception sometimes of the 
bristly pointed plumage of the cheeks, which retains its cream tint 
the longest, and, with the skinny part of the bill, forms two strong 
peculiarities of this species. 
The female measures nineteen inches in length, and twenty- 
seven in extent ; bill exactly as in the male ; sides of the front 
white ; head, chin and neck, ashy gray ; upper parts of the back 
and wings brownish slate; secondaries white; tertials hoary ; the 
white secondaries form a spot on the wing, bounded by the black 
primaries, and four hoary tertials edged with black ; whole lower 
parts a dull ash skirted with brownish white, or clay color; legs 
and feet as in the male ; the bill in both is marked from the nos- 
strils backwards by a singular heart-shaped outline. 
The windpipe of the male measures ten inches in length, and 
has four enlargements, viz* one immediately below the mouth, and 
another at the interval of an inch ; it then bends largely down to 
the breast bone, to which it adheres by two strong muscles, and 
has at that place a third expansion ; it then becomes flattened, 
and before it separates into the lungs, has a fourth enlargement 
much greater than any of the former, which is bony, and round, 
puffing out from the left side. The intestines measure six feet ; 
the liver is remarkably large. 
2 B 
VOL. viir. 
