The Hiftory of ANIMALS, 43 3 
hearer a genuine white than the breaft ; and below the rump there is an elegant black 
fpot, furrounded with a verge of yellow. 
The long feathers in each wing are twenty-five, fome of thefe are fimply brown, 
fome have fome white in their variegations, and fome have not only white but black 
alfo; at the fixteenth feather, from the edge of the wing, the green begins to fhew 
itfelf, and it is continued in the feveral fucceeding ones in fuch manner, as to make 
that beautiful fpot which we fee on the wings: fome of the inner feathers, or thofb 
next the body, have not only black, but yellow, in the variegations. 
The legs are fhort, and not very robuft ; they are of a pale brown, as are alfo the 
toes, but the membrane which connects thefe, and forms what is called the web of the 
foot, is black : the inner of the three anterior toes is the fhorteft, and the hinder toe 
is not augmented by any membrane. The female of this fpecies differs very obvioufly 
from the male : the head has nothing of that elegant red or green, which are fo ele¬ 
gant in the male; nor is there the black fpot fo Angular in the male, at the rump of 
that fex ; the feathers of the back alfo want that undulatory variegation, which is fo 
beautiful in the male. 
This fpecies is frequent with us on our large frefh waters* and it’s flefh is fo well- 
tailed, that it claims the preference againft the whole genus at table. All the writers 
on birds have defcribed it. Gefner calls it, fimply, Querquedula; Aldrovand, Pha- 
fcas five Querquedula minor; Willughby, Querquedula fecunda j and others, Quer¬ 
quedula francia and Querquedula francia altera, diftinguifhing the male and female as 
if two diftindt fpecies, an error too common among this fet of writers. 
Anas cauda longitudine pedum , vertice fufco^ peElore exalbido nebulofo . 
The longer-tailed Anas , with a brown head , and whitijh-clouded breaft . 
This is an uncommon but a very beautiful fpecies; it is of the fize of the widgeon, 
and in it’s make more refembles that particular fpecies which we call the fea-phea- 
fant, than any other of the Anas-kind : the head is fmall, but rounded; the eyes are 
fmall, and their iris of a bright hazel, with an admixture of an orange colour : the 
beak is moderately large, broad, flatted, thick at the bafe, and rounded at the point; 
it is ferrated all the way along the edges, and the noflrils are large and oval; the co¬ 
lour of the whole beak is a very deep olive, approaching to black. 
The head is of a dufky brown at the top, and paler elfewhere : the neck is of a 
deeper brown, and the back alfo is brown, but not fo deep : the bread; is of a whkifh 
colour, but clouded in a very elegant manner with a greyifh-brown : the wings are 
moderately long, and there is an elegant fpot at their origin : the tail alfo is longer 
than in the generality of the duck-kind, but not equal, in this refped, to that of the 
fea-pheafant: the legs are fhort and tolerably robuft; the toes are long, and confe- 
quently the foot is large : the legs and the toes are of a dufky or dingy colour, be¬ 
tween an olive and a lead blue, but the membrane which conne&s the toes is black: 
the hinder toe is very fhort, and the outer one of the three anterior is confiderably 
longer than the inner. 
1 
This is a native of fome of the moft northern parts of Europe, but it has been 
little known; fcarce any of the writers on birds have named it. Linnasus mentions 
it as a native of Sweden, and quotes Olaus Rudbeck for his authority. We have 
had fluffed fkins of it brought over by the people concerned in the whale-fifhery 
from Greenland. 
Anas 
