BRITISH BIRDS, 
^<8 
short and thick, and as well as the toes, vary in differ- 
ent birds from a red to a yellow colour. 
Ornithologists are in doubt as to the country to 
which these birds originally belonged ; it is, however, 
agreed, that they are natives of the warm climates. Mr 
Pennant says they are met with, wild, about the lake 
Baikal, in Asia ; Ray, that they are natives of Louisi- 
ana; Marcgrave, that they are met with in Brazil; 
and Buffon, that they are found in the overflowed sa- 
vannas of Guiana, where they feed in the day-time up- 
on the wild rice, which grows there in abundance,' and 
return in the evening to the sea : he adds, they nes- 
tle on the trunks of rotten trees ; and after the young 
are hatched, the mother takes them one after another 
by the bill and throws them into the water.’’ It is said 
that great numbers of the young brood are destroyed 
by the alligators, which are common in those parts. 
These birds have obtained the name of Musk Duck, 
from their musky smell, which arises from the liquor 
secreted in the glands on the rump. They breed rea- 
dily with the Common Duck, forming an intermediate 
kind, better suited to the table than either of the 
parents. 
In former editions of this work, the description of 
the plumage of these birds was taken from other orni- 
thologists, whose accuracy cannot be doubted. The 
bill red, except about the nostrils and tip, where it 
is brown; the cheeks, throat, and fore part of the 
neck, white, irregularly marked with black : the belly, 
from the breast to the thighs, white. The general co- 
lour of the rest of the plumage is deep brown, darkest, 
and glossed with green, on the back, rump, quills, and 
