7 he Hiflory ^ANIMALS. 425 
plifh, or bluifh, as feen in different lights, and the four that are next the body have 
fome variegations of white: the tail is fhort, and is compofed of fourteen feathers ; it 
is variegated with black and white : the female is very different from the male in this 
fpecies j it entirely refembles the common wild-duck, except in the wings, which are 
like thofe of the male. 
The legs are fhort, and the feet fmaller than in mo ft of this genus they are of a 
bright red colour, and the membrane which conneds the toes is ferrated. It is faid by 
many, that this bird changes it’s colour in the winter; but I am rather apt to believe, 
that they miftake fome different fpecies for it, which they do not examine, or which 
they only fee at a diftance, or on the wing. 
All the writers on birds have named this. Gefner calls it Anas Platyrinchos major; 
Aldrovand, Anas latiroftra major, and Anas latrioftra fufca; for lie defcribes it 
twice, as if two fpecies; Willughby calls it Anas Platyrinchos major five Clypeata 
Germanica. We have it in fome parts of England, but it is not frequent with us 5 in 
other parts of Europe it is very common, and moft fo in the more northern. 
Anas macula alarum purpurea, utrinque nigra albaque , peElore 
rufefcente. 
7 he Anas , with the fpot of the wings purple , and black on each 
fide , and the breafi reddifio. 
This is a very pretty bird $ it is nearly, but not altogether, of the fize of the com¬ 
mon duck : the head is large and rounded ; the eyes are fmall, and their iris is yellow : 
the beak is large, and is very broad, in proportion to it’s length ; the noftrils are ob¬ 
long, and ftand high for one of this fpecies: the whole beak is of a mixed brown and 
yellow colour. 
In the male there is an extreamly elegant fpot on the wing, of a violet colour, edged 
with black, and on the outlide of that with white; this is fo lingular, that it cannot 
fail to diftinguifh the bird, at fight, without farther defcription. 
The female has a fpot of the fame form and kind with the male on her wings, only 
in this the colour is paler: in the male it is a deep violet or purplilh-blue, but in the 
female it is a clearer blue, with much lefs of the addition of the purple : the breaft in 
both the female and male is of a pale reddifh-brown ; the tips of the wings, and alfo 
their fummit, is grey, and the tail is fhort and white : the back is of a brown colour, 
with a tinge of ferrugineous towards the fades; and the under part is of a ferrugineous 
colour, with fpots of a dufky brown : the throat is of a very pale ferrugineous tinge, 
aud is not at all fpotted: the body of the wings is of a greyifh-brown, and their long 
feathers are partly limply brown, and partly brown, tipped with white; and fome 
have white near the extremity, but the abfolute tip is black. 
The legs are fhort, and not very robuft, nor are the feet large, but they are deeply 
webbed : the hinder toe is very fhort; the colour of the legs and feet is a yellow, 
approaching to reddifh. 
Ths fpecies is frequent in many parts of Europe, but I have not met with it in 
England. I have been told of a fpecies caught in the decoys of Lincolnfhite, which 
by defcription anfwers to this, but have never feen it. All the authors who have writ¬ 
ten on birds have defcribed this. Aldrovand calls it Anas Platyrinchos pedibus luteis j 
and Pvay, Willughby, and moft of the others have followed him in this. 
5 R 
Anas 
