The Hiftory 0/* ANIMALS, 
Anas oculorum iridibus flavis , capite grifeo y cotlari albo * 
The grey-headed Anas y with yellow eyes . 
This is nearly of the fize of the common wild-duck, and is a very elegant bird: 
the head is large, and of a rounded, not a depreffed, form ; the eyes are bright, and 
very piercing in their afpedt; their iris is of a fine gold yellow : the beak is large, 
broad, and ferrated all round the edges : the noftrils are large and oblong, and the 
bafe of the beak is remarkably firm and robuft. 
The head and half the neck are of a deep, dufky, ferrugineous colour in this part, 
or at the bottom of the ferrugineous portion of the neck there is a circle of white 
carried quite round it, in form of a collar : the breaft is of a fine filvery grey colour ; 
the belly is perfectly white : the back is of a deep black, and the wings, while they 
are clofed, appear to be alfo black entirely, but, when they are expanded, they fhew 
feven white feathers: the tail is fhort and black j the legs are fhort, but robuft 5 the 
feet are broad and webbed, and the hinder toe is very fhort. 
This is a frefh-water fowl, and is very frequent in moft of the northern parts of 
Europe, but lefs fo in England than almoft any where elfe. It dives almoft continually, 
and will keep under water a vaft while at a time. Moft of the writers on birds have 
named it. Bellonius calls it Glaucium and Glaucus j and moft of the writers who 
have followed him, have called it Glaucion, or Glaucium Bellonii. 
Anas capite brunno y froute alba y cauda fubtus nigra. 
The Anas y with a brown head, a white front , and a TTtgt 
tail black underneath . 
This is a fmaller bird than the duck, but considerably larger than the teal: it’s 
head is large and round, and it’s beak large, but not fo long, in proportion to the 
body, as that of the common duck : the eyes are fmall j the noftrils are oblong and 
narrow: the beak is ferrated all the way round, and is obtufe, but not remarkably 
broad, as in fome fpecies, at the extremity. 
The head and the upper part of the neck are of a reddifh colour, fprinkled over 
with blue fpots: the front of the head, toward the bafe of the beak, is of a paler red 
than the reft, and has a tinge of yellowifh-white in it: the upper part of the bread: 
and the fades, under covert of the wings, are of an extreamly bright and beautiful 
purple, variegated, in an elegant manner, with tranfverfe lines of black : the middle 
of the back is brown ; the edges of the feathers, however, are very beautifully varie¬ 
gated with grey, efpecially toward the hinder part: the covering feathers of the tail 
are black ; the lower part of the breaft, and the whole belly, are of a whitifli tinge, 
but there is fomething of yellow mixed in it: the feathers which cover the thighs are 
variegated with numerous, oblong fpots of a reddilh-brown, and the feathers which 
are under the tail are of a mixt black and white, and have fome of the fame fpots in 
them. 
The tail confifts of fourteen feathers j the twelve outer ones, fix on each fide, are of 
a deep brown, with their edges of a greyilh-white : the two middle ones are black, 
only with a flight admixture of grey. 
The legs are fhort, but they are robuft j their colour is a very pale bluilh-grey, or 
lead colour, with fome admixture of white in it. All the writers who have treated of 
birds have defcribed this, and almoft all under the fame name Penelope ; fome few 
have called it Anas fiftularis. We have it in great plenty in our fen countries, as 
about Crowland in Lincolnfhire in vaft abundance. It feeds on the herbage at the 
bottom of frefh waters, and on the water infedts. 
Anas 
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