101 
FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
[Plate LXX.— Fig. 2.] 
Peale’s Museum, No* 2811. 
THE female is distinguished from the male by wanting the 
lengthened tertials, and the two long pointed feathers of the tail ; 
and also by her size, and the rest of her plumage, which is as fol- 
lows : length sixteen inches, extent twenty-eight inches ; bill dusky; 
middle of the crown, and spot on the side of the neck, blackish ; a 
narrow dusky line runs along the throat for two inches ; rest of the 
head, and upper half of the neck, white, lower half pale vinaceous 
bay, blended with white ; all the rest of the lower parts of the body 
pure white ; back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, bright ferru- 
ginous, centred with black, and interspersed with whitish ; shoul- 
ders of the wing, and quills, black ; lower part of the back the 
same, tinged with brown ; tail pale brown ash, inner vanes of all 
but the two middle feathers white ; legs and feet dusky slate. The 
legs are placed far behind, which circumstance points out the spe- 
cies to be great divers. In some females the upper parts are less 
Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this spe- 
cies, to be occasioned by the remarkable construction of its wind- 
pipe ; but the fact, that the females are uniformly the most noisy, 
and yet are entirely destitute of the singularities of this conforma- 
tion, overthrows the probability of this supposition. 
2 C 
VOL. VUI. 
