Tie Biftory of ANIMALS, 42j 
The female of this fpecies has the back all over of a grey, clouded with blackifh, 
and the belly white: the tail is of the fame Angular figure as in the male, but the 
middle feathers, though longer than the others, do not in this fex fo much exceed 
them : the legs are fhort and flender, but the feet are large, broad, and webbed : the 
toes are flender, and the claws are obtufe and fhort. 
All the writers on birds have named this fpecies. Willughby calls it Anas cauda 
acuta; Wormius, Anas Iflandica, and in another place, Anas cauda acuta Iflandica 
Kanelda ipfis dida. We call it the Craker and the Sea-pheafant. 
Anas caudee reElricibus intermediis recurvis. 
*The Anas , with the intermediate reSlrices of 
the tail crooked. 
The male and female in this common kifrd differ as much as in many of the more rare 
ones: in the male the head is of a very elegant and changeable colour, a deep blue and a 
deep green diftinguifh themfelves in the different lights in which it is viewed; the 
back is of a ferrugineous brown, and the rump has fomewhat of fine filky green : the 
breaft and belly are of a pale whitifh-grey, very elegantly undulated, and variegated 
with five flender and fhort ftriae, placed very clofe together : the wings are brown on 
the upper fide, and white underneath ; the long feathers are partly grey, and partly 
brown: the grey ones have little variegations, but the brown are fome of them tipped 
with white, and a confiderable number of the others are of a deep violet blue in the 
middle, with fome blacknefs about it; thefe ftand together, and the dark and beauti¬ 
ful colour in them gives a very lingular beauty to the wing, forming a large and ele¬ 
gant fpot in it: the covering feathers of this part of the wing are grey, at the edges 
whitifh in the middle, and black at the extremities; thofe next the tides are limply of 
a greyifh-brown. 
The tail is fhort; the four middle feathers of it are black and curled, or turned ; 
the others are of a greyifh-white : the legs are of a dark yellowifh-brown j they are 
covered to the knees with feathers: the female has nothing of the beautiful variega¬ 
tions of the male, but is of a Ample dark brown. 
This is the molt plentiful of all the Anas kind with us, and we keep it alfo tame in 
vaft abundance for the fupply of our tables. It feeds on almoft any thing, whether 
of the animal or vegetable kind, and, when kept, fome vary extreamly in colour, and 
to nothing oftener than to a perfect white. All the writers on birds have defcribed 
it. Gefner calls it Anas fera torquata; Aldrovand, Bofchas major five Anas tor- 
quata; and Ray, Willughby, and others have continued the fame name. J^Iany of 
the late writers, however, have defcribed it again in it’s tame ftate, as if another fpe¬ 
cies, and called it Anas domeflica vulgaris. This is the cafe alfo with thefe authors, in 
regard to the goofe, the fwan, and, in fhort, every other bird that is kept tame at our 
houfes, and is wild alfo in our fields or rivers; the cuftom was, at one time, carried fo 
far, that one Lovel, who has written a hiftory of animals under the name of a Panzo- 
ologicon, when he comes to treat of the bull, has one chapter for that, another for 
the cow, a third for the calf, and a fourth for the ox. 
Anas facie nuda papillofa. 
!The Anas , with a naked papillofe face. 
This is a very beautiful bird ; it is much larger than our common duck, and is near= 
er the fize of the goofe: the male is, as in many other fpecies of this genus, extreamly 
different from the female in colouring, and is particular in this, that he has about the 
middle of the hinder part of the neck a number of red, naked papilla?: the females 
are very various in their colouring, but the principal colours are black and white: the 
head is large and rounded; the eyes are large, and very bright and piercing; the beak 
is large and long, but it differs from that of mod of the duck-kind, in that it is 
5 Q, bent 
%l)t CtBufcoijp 
2>ucft. 
%l)t common 
Unit) Duct*. 
