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AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY;

OR,

THE NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE

RIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES:

ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES

Engraved and Colored from Original draivings taken from Nature.

BY ALEXANDER WILSON.

VOL. vni.

PHILADELPHIA :

PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL F. BRADFORD.

PRINTED BY THOMAS H. PALMER.

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PREFACE.

THE patrons of the American Ornithology are now pre-
sented with the eighth volume of this work, which, unfortunately
for the interest of science, was left unfinished by its ingenious and
indefatigable author. It was the intention of Mr. Wilson to com-
plete the whole in nine volumes ; and he was rapidly advancing
to a close, when he was suddenly arrested in his honorable and
useful career by a mandate from that Power who so often frus-
trates human purposes ; and whose mighty scheme of Providence
no created being can comprehend.

The historical part of the present volume was completed and
printed off, and all the plates, except one, were engraved, under the
superintendence of the author himself. But from the defection of
those on whom he had relied for assistance in the coloring of his
subjects, and the great difficulty of immediately procuring others
competent to the task, this branch of the work did not keep pace
with the rest ; and hence the publication of the volume has been
delayed by causes beyond the control of those on whom, at Mi-.
Wilson’s death, his affairs dcA'olved. But this delay, we trust, has
been of benefit to the work, as it enabled us to employ an artist
who formerly gained the confidence of the author by his skill, and

IV

PREFACE.

attention to the duties assigned him ; and who has given as-
surance of continuing his assistance until the whole is completed.
With such a coadjutor, our labours, in this department, will be
considerably lightened ; and, with deference, we hope that the pub-
lic will not so readily perceive the absence of that hand whose de-
licate touches imparted hues and animation to the pictured “ deni-
zens of the air,” which might almost vie with the interesting
originals themselves.

The present volume contains much valuable matter; and when
viewed as the last fruit of the philosophical mind of its amiable
author, will be doubtless received with no ordinary degree of at-
tention. In it we are presented with correct delineations of the
greater part of that interesting and useful tribe that frequent our
waters, tlie genus .inas, or the Ducks.* The histories of some are
necessarily imperfect, as they are but partially known, and seldom
permit an opportunity of investigation. Others, from their habits
not exciting much interest, have been too much neglected by na-
turalists ; and the biographer of their simple lives was condemned,
however repugnant to his wishes and intentions, to pass them over
in a brief and unsatisfactory manner. But the author has had it
in his power to confer that justice on a y'ery, whose merits have been
considered by ornithologists and connoisseurs as of the first order,
to which they are fairly entitled ; and his faithful narratives, we

^ Mr. Wilson omitted the Swan for the want of a good recent specimen. The White-
fronted Goose, which inhabits the waters of the Missouri ; the Muscovy Duck, which is found
in Louisiana, and sometimes as far north as Georgia ; and the King Duck, which occasionally
visits Boston bay, he never had the good fortune to see.

PREFACE.

V

trust, will amply reward attention ; as neither pains nor expense has
been spared to obtain correct information relating to them, which
he knew would be justly valued by a discerning and respectable
community.

Of the domestic habits of the greater part of the subjects
above referred to, the scientific world unfortunately remains in
ignorance. Formed by nature with strength of wing capable of
supporting immense aerial journies, the Ducks, in the vernal sea-
son, impelled by that mysterious principle, vaguely termed in-
stinct, prepare to seek those climes which will aflbrd them an
asylum during the important period of incubation ; and where they
and their offspring may escape the observation of destructive man.
To the dreary regions of the north these wanderers then repair;
each family, probably, occupying those peculiar districts, which
had been the heritage of their progenitors for ages ; and which
furnish them with an abundance of food particularly adapted to
their wants, and to the rearing of their young. In that season,
could the zealous naturalist safely tread those unknown shoies,
what a rich harvest would reward his enterprise and research !
He would there behold, on their own native streams, in all the
pride of independence, those various acquaintance whose periodi-
cal visits to his section of the globe he never failed to welcome ;
he would explore their favorite haunts ; trace the operations of na-
ture in the important work of perpetuating their kind ; note their
simple manners before a knowledge of the lords of creation had
taught them vigilance and stratagem ; and finally behold them

congregating in prodigious multitudes, to prepare, as the season of

2 B

VOL. VIII.

VI

PREFACE.

night and storms approaches, to migrate to those regions where
tlieir wants may continue to be supplied ; and where it seems to be
a wise provision of the bountiful Creator, they themselves may con-
tribute to the sustenance and comfort of a portion of the human
race. But to such an enterprise Nature has opposed formidable
barriers, such as it appears she does not intend that we shall sur-
mount ; thereby intimating to us that she fears to indulge a curi-
osity whicli might ultimately prove subversive of her general plan,
by subjecting to the insatiable dominion of a few, what was kindly
intended for the benefit of all.

The publication of the eighth volume has been attended with
increased expense, as the nature of the figures, and the crowded
manner in which the author found himself necessitated to intro-
duce them, in order that nine volumes should comprise the whole
of our ornithology, have compelled the artists to devote more time
to the faithful discharge of their trust. How well they have suc-
ceeded in doing justice to their subjects, it is not necessary for us
to declare, as the public, in matters of taste, indulge a right of
judging for themselves. But it is proper to state that the present
volume was a favorite with its author, and he had formed the re-
solution of devoting to it a more than ordinary share of his per-
sonal attention; intending thereby to afford to his patrons a proof
that there was no falling oft from his original elegance ; and to
the friends of the arts, and lovers of science, an illustration of what
unwearied industry could accomplish, when associated with zeal
and talent. Mr. Wilson intended coloring the chief part of the
plates himself; but this design, which sprang from the most re-

PREFACE. vii

fined sense of duty, and so fondly cherished, he did not live to
accomplish.

The succeeding volume will be published without delay, the
plates for it being all engraved. In that the public may expect
a biographical account of Mr. Wilson, compiled from the most
authentic materials in the possession of his executors ; a complete
index to the whole, and a list of subscribers, which will conclude
the American Ornithology.

GEORGE ORD.

Philadelphia^ January IQM, 1814.

THE Editor having been authorized by the publisher to re-
vise the volume, he applied himself with zeal to the undertaking ;
and in order to render the work more useful to the American Or-
nithological student, he conceived it would be proper to make the
following alterations in the nomenclature :

Ardea Ludoviciana
Ardea Americana
Tantalus ruber
T. albus

Anas fuligula
A. rubidus

Jlrdea leucogaster.
Gras Jlmericana.
Ihis ruher,

I. albus,

Alias rufitorques,
A. Jamaicensis.

The first column contains the names of the original edition.

B. Jld FvmjjJ/iT,
Wfist < Pa.,

Jfot to bt lodned on %ny Con/Ut'

viii PREFACE.

The synonyraes have been corrected and augmented; and
some new matter added, which the Editor hopes will not be found
unacceptable to the reader.

GEORGE ORD.

Philadelphia^ June Isty 1824.

INDEX

TO THE EIGHTH VOLUME.

AMERICAN Bittern
American Tufted Duck .
American Widgeon
Black Duck ....
Blue-winged Teal .

Brant ....

BufiFel-headed Duck

{Male and Female)
Canada Goose
Canvass-back Duck
Demi-Egret Heron
Eider Duck (Male)

{Female)

Gadwall ....

Golden-eye ....
Goosander {Male)

{Female)

Great Heron

Jlrdea minor

. 35

Jlnas rujitorqiies

. 61

Jlnas Jlmericana

. 91

Jlnas ohsciira

. 155

Jlnas discoi's

. 77

JLnas bernicla

. 145

Anas albeola .

. 51

Jlnas Canadensis

. 53

Jlnas vallisneria

. 108

Jlrdea leucogaster

. 13

Anas mollisshna

. 132

• • • *

. 135

Anas strep era

. 130

Anas clangida

. 64

Mergiis merganser .

. 70

.

. 74

Ardea herodias

. 28

VOL. VIII.

C

INDEX.

PAGE.

Green-winged Teal

Jlfias crecca

. 106

Harlequin Duck

Jliias histrionica

. 153

Hooded Merganser

Mergus cucullatus

. 82

Hooping Crane

Grits Americana

. 20

Least Bittern

Ardea exilis

. 37

Long-billed Curlew

Numenius longirostris

, 23

Long-tailed Duck [Male)

Anas glacialis

. 98

{Female)

• • • •

. 101

Mallard

Anas boschas

. 121

Marsh Tern

Sterna aranea

. 158

Pied Duck

Anas Labradora

. 96

Pied Oyster-catcher

Hamatopus ostralegus

. 15

Pintail Duck

Anas acuta

. 75

Red-breasted Merganser

Mergus serrator

. 84

Red Flamingo

Phoenicopterus ruber

. 45

Red-headed Duck

Anas ferina

. 119

Ruddy Duck

Anas Jamaicensis

. 138

Scarlet Ibis

Ibis ruber

. 41

Scaup Duck

Anas marila

. 87

Scoter Duck

Anas nigra

. 149

Shoveller

Anas clypeata

. 67

Smew, or White Nun

Mergus albellus

. 136

Snow Goose

Anas hyperborea

. 79

{Young Female)

•

. 94

Sooty Tern .

Sterna fuliginosa

. 161

Summer Duck

Anas sponsa

. 102

Surf Duck

Anas perspicillata

. 49

INDEX.

xi

Velvet Duck

Jlnas fiisca

PIQE.

. 151

White Ibis

.

Ibis albus

. 43

Wood Ibis

.

Tantalus lomlator .

. 39

Yellow-crowned Heron

Ardea xnolacea

. 26

f;"

ivi---^.. , ■;'

• ^

AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY.

DEMI-EGRET HERON.*
JlRDEJl LEUCOGJISTER.
[Plate LXIV.— Fig. 1.]

Lath. S^n. Ill, /j. 88, A'b. 57. — Ind. Om. p, 694, No, 62. — Stephens, Gen. Zool. XI, /j.

547. — La Deyni-aigrettey Buff. VII, p. 378. PL Enl. 350. — Gmel. Sijst. I, p. 628, A'b.

32, — Peale’s Museunij No. 3750.

THIS is a rare and delicately formed species ; occasionally
found on the swampy river shores of South Carolina, but more fre-
quently along the borders of the Mississippi, particularly below
New Orleans. In each of these places it is migratory; and in the
latter, as I have been informed, builds its nest on trees, amidst the
inundated woods. Its manners correspond very much with those
of the Blue Heron. It is quick in all its motions, darting about
after its prey with surprising agility. Small fish, fi'ogs, lizards,
tadpoles, and various aquatic insects, constitute its principal food.

There is a bird described by Latham in his General Synop-
sis, vol. iii, p. 88, called the Demi-EgreU\ which, from the account
there given, seems to approach near to the present species. It is
said to inhabit Cayenne.

^ Named in the plate Louisiana Heron,
\ See also Buffon, vol. vii, p. 378.

VOL. VIII.

D

14

DEMI-EGRET HERON.

Length of the Demi-Egret Heron from the point of the bill to
the extremity of the tail twenty-three inches ; the long hair-like
plumage of the rump and lower part of the back extends several
inches farther; the bill is remarkably long, measuring full five
inches, of a yellowish green at the base, black towards the point,
and very sharp ; irides yellow ; chin and throat white, dotted with
ferruginous and some blue ; the rest of the neck is of a light vinous
purple, intermixed on the lower part next the breast with dark
slate-colored plumage ; the whole feathers of the neck are long,
narrow and pointed ; head crested, consisting first of a number of
long narrow purple feathers, and under these seven or eight pen-
dent ones, of a pure white, and twice the length of the former ;
upper part of the back and wings light slate ; lower part of the
back and rump white, but concealed by a mass of long unwebbed
hair-like plumage, that falls over the tail and tips of the wings, ex-
tending three inches beyond them : these plumes are of a dirty
purplish brown at the base, and lighten towards the extremities to
a pale cream color ; the tail is even at the tip, rather longer than
the wings, and of a fine slate ; the legs and naked thighs greenish
yellow; middle claw pectinated; whole lower parts pure white.
Male and female alike in plumage, both being crested.

15

PIED OYSTER.CATCHER.

HMMJITOPUS OSTRJILEGUS.

[Plate LXIV.— Fig. 2, Male.']

Arct. Zool. No. 406.-~Gmel. Sijst.l, p. 694— Lath. Incl Orn. p. 752. Geti. St/n. Ill, p.

219. — Catesby, I, 85. — Bewick, II, 23. — Stephens, Gen. Zool, vol XI, p. 494, p/.

36. — VHuUrier^ Buff. VIII, p. 119, p/. 9. PI. EnL Ao. 929. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 531.

—Pe ale’s Museum^ No. 4258.

THIS singular species, although nowhere numerous, inhabits al-
most every seashore, both on the new and old continent, but is never
found inland. It is the only one of its genus hitherto discovered,
and from the conformation of some of its parts one might almost be
led by fancy to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the Pheasant,
the legs and feet of the Bustard, and the bill of the Woodpecker.

The Oyster-catcher frequents the sandy seabeach of New
Jersey, and other parts of our Atlantic coast in summer, in small
parties of two or three pairs together. They are extremely shy,
and, except about the season of breeding, will seldom permit a
person to approach within gunshot. They walk along the shore
in a watchful stately manner, at times probing it with their long
wedge-like bills in search of small shell-fish. This appears evi-
dent on examining the hard sands where they usually resort, which
are found thickly perforated with oblong holes two or three inches
in depth. The small crabs called fiddlers, tliat burrow in the mud
at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the prey of the Oyster-
catcher ; as are muscles, spout-fish, and a variety of other shell-
fish, and sea insects, with which those shores abound.

The principal food, however, of this bird, according to Eu-
ropean writers, and that from which it derives its name, is the
oyster, which it is said to watch for, and snatch suddenly from the
shells, whenever it surprises them sufficiently open. In search of

16

PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

these it is reported that it often frequents the oyster beds, look-
ing out for the slightest opening through which it may attack its
unwary prey. For this purpose the form of its bill seems very
fitly calculated. Yet the truth of these accounts is doubted by the
inhabitants of Egg-Harbor, and other parts of our coast, who po-
sitively assert that it never haunts such places, but confines itself
almost solely to the sands. And this opinion I am inclined to be-
lieve correct ; having myself* uniformly found these birds on the
smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on the higher dry and level
sands, just beyond the reach of the summer tides. On this last
situation, where the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted
shells, I have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle
and twenty-fifth of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the
sand, containing three eggs, somewhat less than those of a hen,
and nearly of the same shape, of a bluish cream color, marked
with large roundish spots of black, and others of a fainter tint. In
some the ground cream color is destitute of the bluish tint, the
blotches larger, and of a deep brown. The young are hatched
about the twenty-fifth of May, and sometimes earlier, having my-
self caught them running along the beach about that period. They
are at first covei’ed with down of a grayish color, very much re-
sembling that of the sand, and marked with a streak of brownish
black on the back, rump and neck, the breast being dusky, where
in the old ones it is black. The bill is at that age slightly bent
downwards at the tip, where, like most other young birds, it has a
hard protuberance that assists them in breaking the shell ; but in
a few days afterwards this falls off.^ These run along the shore
with great ease and swiftness.

* Latham observes, that the young are said to be hatched in about three weeks ; and though
they are wild when in flocks, yet are easily brought up tame if taken young. “ I have known
them,” says he, “ to be thus kept for a long time, frequenting the ponds and ditches during the
day, attending the ducks and other poultry to shelter of nights, and not unfrequently to come
up of themselves as evening approaches.” Gen. voL iii, p. 220.

PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

17

The female sits on her eggs only during the night, or in re-
markably cold and rainy weather ; at other times the heat of the
sun, and of the sand, which is sometimes great, renders incubation
unnecessary. But although this is the case, she is not deficient in
care or affection. She watches the spot with an attachment, anxie-
ty and perseverance, that are really surprising, till tlie time arrives
when her little offspring burst tlieir prisons, and follow the guiding
voice^^f -thmr mother. When there is appearance of danger they
sqiMVon.the sand, from which they are with difficulty distinguish-
ed, while the parents make large circuits around the intruder,
alighting sometimes on this hand, sometimes on that, uttering re-
peated cries, and practising the common affectionate stratagem of
counterfeited lameness to allure him from their young.

These birds run and^fly with great vigor and velocity. Their
note is a loud and shrill Avhistling xvheep — wheep — wheo, smartly
uttWed. A flock will often rise, descend, and wheel in air with
r^iiarkable regularity, as if drilled to the business, the glitter-
ing white of their wings at such times being very conspicuous.
They are more remarkable for this on their first arrival in the
spring. Some time ago I received a stuffed specimen of the
Oyster-catcher from a gentlemen of Boston, an experienced spoi-ts-
man, who nevertheless was unacquainted with this bird. He in-
formed me that two very old men to whom it was shown called it
a HagdeL He adds, “ it was shot from a flock which was first
discovered on the beach near the entrance of Boston liarbor. On
the approach of the gunner they rose and instantly formed in line,
like a corps of troops, and advanced in perfect order, keeping well
dressed. They made a number of circuits in the air previous to
being shot at, but wheeled in line ; and the man who fired into the
flock, observed that all their evolutions were like a regularly or-
ganized military company.”

The Oyster-catcher will not only take to the water when
wounded, but can also swim and dive well. This fact I can as-

E

VOL. VIII.

18

PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

sert from my own observation, the exploits of one of them, in this
way, having nearly cost me my life. On the seabeach of Cape
May, not far from a deep and rapid inlet, I broke the wing of one
of these birds, and being without a dog, instantly pursued it to-
wards the inlet, which it made for with great rapidity. We both
plunged in nearly at the same instant ; but the bird eluded my
grasp, and I sunk beyond my depth ; it was not until this moment
that I recollected having carried in my gun along with me. On
rising to the surface I found the bird had dived, and a strong ebb
current was carrying me fast towards the ocean, encumbered with
a gun and all my shooting apparatus ; I was compelled to relin-
quish my bird, and to make for the shore, with considerable mor-
tification, and the total destruction of the contents of my powder-
horn. The wounded bird afterwards rose, and swam with great
buoyancy out among the breakers.

On the same day I shot and examined three individuals of this
species, two of which measured each eighteen inches in length, and
thirty-five inches in extent ; the other was somewhat less. The
bills varied in length, measuring three inches and three quarters,
three and a half, and three and a quarter, thinly compressed at
the point, very much like that of the Woodpecker tribe, but re-
markably narrowed near the base where the nostrils are placed,
probably that it may work with more freedom in the sand. This
instrument for two-thirds of its length, towards the point, was evi-
dently much worn by digging ; its color a rich orange scarlet,
somewhat yellowish near the tip ; eye large, orbits of the same
bright scarlet as the bill, irides brilliant yellow, pupil small, bluish
black ; under the eye is a small spot of white, and a large bed of
the same on the wing-coverts ; head, neck, scapulars, rump, wing
quills, and tail black ; several of the primaries are marked on the
outer vanes with a slanting band of white ; secondaries white, part
of them tipt with black ; the whole lower pai ts of the body, sides
of the rump, tail-coverts, and that portion of the tail which they

PIED OYSTER-CATCHER.

19

cx>jv»^-?t!^e pure white ; the wings, when shut, cover the whole \vhite
"plu.'nxage of the back and rump ; legs and naked part of the thighs
;Vp5^'e I’ed ; feet three-toed, the outer joined to the middle by a broad
^tid strong membrane, and each bordered with a rough warty
edge ; the soles of the feet are defended from the hard sand and
shells by a remanka.bjy thick and callous warty skin.

On opening-^StfeSfe'birds the smallest of the three was found to
b6 a male; the gullet widened into a kind of crop; the stomach,
or gizzard, contained fragments of shell-fish, pieces of crabs, and
of the great king-crab, with some dark brown marine insects. The
flesh was remarkably firm and muscular, the skull thick and
strong, intended no doubt, as in the Woodpecker tribe, for the se-
curity of the brain from the violent concussions it might receive
while the bird was engaged in digging. The female and young
birds, have the back; and scapulars of a sooty brownish olive.

Naturalists represent the Oyster-catcher of Europe and that
of the United States as one species, though in the markings of their
plumage there is a little difference. The tail of tlie latter is black,
whilst that of the former is white, largely tipt with black. Our bird
appears to be somewhat lar^r than the European.

According to Temmilick the species which inhabits South
America is distinct from ours : he names it Hamatopiis palUatiis.

20

HOOPING CRANE.

GSUS JlMERICANJl.

[Plate LXIV— Fig. 3, Male.']

Arct. Zool. No, 339. — Catesby, I, 75. — Lath, III, p. 42. — Grus Americana^ Briss. V,
p, 382. La Grue d'AmSrigue^ PI. Enl. 889. — Ardea Americanay Ind. Orn, p. 675, No. 6;
A. gigantea? Id. p, 674, No. 3. — Gmel, Syst, I, p. 621, No, 5; Id. 622, No, 11? —
Peale’s Museum, No. 3704.

THIS is the tallest and most stately species of all the fea-
thered tribes of the United States; the watchful inhabitant of ex-
tensive salt marshes, desolate swamps, and open morasses, in the
neighborhood of the sea. Its migrations are regular, and of the
most extensive kind, reaching from the shores and inundated tracts
of South America to the arctic circle. In these immense periodi-
cal journies they pass at such a prodigious height in the air as to
be seldom observed. They have, however, their resting stages on
the route to and from their usual breeding places, the regions of
the north. A few sometimes make their appearance in the marshes
of Cape May, in December, particularly on and near Egg-Island,
where they are known by the name of Storks, The younger birds
are easily distinguished from the rest by the brownness of their
plumage. Some linger in these marshes the whole winter, setting
out north about the time the ice breaks up. During their stay they
wander along the marsh and muddy flats of the seashore in search
of marine worms, sailing occasionally from place to place, with a
low and heavy flight, a little above the surface ; and have at such
times a very foi-midable appearance. At limes they utter a loud
clear and piercing cry, which may be heard at the distance of two
miles. They have also various modulations of this singular note,
from the peculiarity of which they derive their name. When

HOOPING CRANE.

21

wounded they attack the gunner, or his dog, with great resolu-
tion ; and have been known to drive their sharp and formidable
bill, at one stroke, through a man’s hand.

During winter they are frequently seen in the low grounds
and rice plantations of the southern states, in search of grain and
insects. On the tenth of February I met with several near the
Waccamau river, in South Carolina; I also saw a flock at the
ponds near Louisville, Kentucky, on the twentieth of March. They
are extremely shy and vigilant, so that it is with the greatest dif-
ficulty they can be shot. They sometimes rise in the air spirally
to a great height, the mingled noise of their screaming, even when
they are almost beyond the I’each of sight, resembling that of a
pack of hounds in full cry. On these occasions they fly around in
large circles, as if reconnoitring the country to a vast extent for a
fresh quarter to feed in. Their flesh is said to be well tasted, no
ways savouring of fish. They swallow mice, moles, rats, &c. with
great avidity. They build their nests on the ground, in tussocks
of long grass, amidst solitary swamps, raise it to more than a foot
in height, and lay two pale blue eggs, spotted with brown. 1 hese
are much larger, and of a more lengthened form, than those of the
common hen.

The Cranes are distinguished from the Herons by the com-
parative baldness of their heads, the broad flag of plumage project-
ing over the tail, and in general by their superior size. They also
diflfer in their internal organization, particularly in the conforma-
tion of the windpipe, which enters the breast bone in a cavity fitted
to receive it, and after several turns goes out again at the same place,
and thence descends to the lungs. Unlike the Herons, they have not
the inner side of the middle claw pectinated ; and, in this species
at least, the hind toe is short, scarcely reaching the ground.

The vast marshy flats of Siberia are inhabited by a Crane very

much resembling the present, with the exception of the bill and

Y

VOL. VIII.

22

HOOPING CRANE.

legs being red; like those of the present, the yearling birds are
said also to be tawny.

The Hooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from
the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and when standing erect
measures nearly five feet ; the bill is six inches long, and an inch
and a half in thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellow-
ish brown color ; the irides are yellow ; the forehead, whole crown,
and cheeks, are covered with a warty skin thinly interspersed with
black hairs ; these become more thickly set towards the base of
the bill; the hind head is of an ash color; the rest of the plumage
pure white, the primaries excepted, which are black; from the root
of each wing rise numerous large flowing feathers projecting over
the tail and tips of the wings ; the uppermost of these are broad,
drooping, and pointed at the extremities, some of them are also
loosely webbed, their silky fibres curling inwards like those of the
Ostrich. They seem to occupy the place of the tertials. The legs
and naked part of the thighs are black, very thick and strong ; the
hind toe seems rarely or never to reach the hard ground, though
it may probably assist in preventing the bird from sinking too
deep in the mire.

In the first edition of this work our author expresses the con-
jecture, that the Brown and Ash-colored Crane of Edwards is no-
thing more than the young of the Hooping Crane. This is an
error into which he was led in consequence of never having seen a
specimen of the bird in question, which Linnaeus names Jlrdea
Canadensis, and Brisson Grits Freti Hudsonis, Peale’s Museum at
present contains a fine specimen of the Grus Canadensis, which
was brought by the naturalists attached to Major Long’s exploring
party, who ascended the Missouri in the year 1820. Bartram calls
this Crane the Grus pratensis. It is known to travellers by the
name of Sandhill Crane.

LONG-BILLED CURLEW.

JVUMEJVim LONGIROSTRIS.

[Plate LXIV.— Fig. 4.]

Numenius arquata, var. A, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 710, No. \.—-Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 120, variety.

Peale’s Museum, No. 3910.

THIS American species has been considered by the naturalists
of Europe to be a mere variety of their own, notwithstanding its
difference of color, and superior length of bill. These differences
not being accidental, or found in a few individuals, but common to
all, and none being found in America corresponding with that of
Europe, we do not hesitate to consider the present as a distinct
species, peculiar to this country.

Like the preceding, this bird is an inhabitant of marshes in
the vicinity of the sea. It is also found in the interior ; where, from
its long bill and loud whistling note, it is generally known.

The Curlews appear in the salt marshes of New Jersey about
the middle of May, on their Avay to tlie north ; and in September,
on their return from their breeding places. Their food consists
chiefly of small crabs, which they are very dexterous at probing
for, and pulling out of the holes with their long bills ; they also
feed on those small sea snails so abundant in the marshes, and on
various worms and insects. They are likewise fond of bramble
berries, frequenting the fields and uplands in search of this fruit,
on which they get very fat, and are then tender and good eating,
altogether free from the sedgy taste with whicli their flesh is usually
tainted while they feed in the salt marshes.

The Curlews fly high, generally in a wedge-like form, some-
what resembling certain Ducks ; occasionally uttering tlmir loud
whistling note, by a dexterous imitation of which a whole flock

24

LONG-BILLED CURLEW.

may sometimes be enticed within gunshot, while the cries of the
wounded are sure to detain them until the gunner has made re-
peated shots, and great havoc among them.

This species is said to breed in Labrador, and in the neigh-
borhood of Hudson’s bay. A few instances have been known of
one or two pair remaining in the salt marshes of Cape May all
summer. A person of respectability informed me, that he once
started a Curlew from her nest, which was composed of a little dry
grass, and contained four eggs, very much resembling in size and
color those of the Mud-hen, or Clapper Rail. This was in the
month of July. Cases of this kind are so rare, that the northern
regions must be considered as the general breeding place of this
species.

The Long-billed Curlew is twenty-five inches in length, and
three feet three inches in extent, and when in good order weighs
about thirty ounces ; but individuals differ greatly in this respect ;
the bill is eight inches long, nearly straight for half its length,
thence curving considerably downwards to its extremity, where it
ends in an obtuse knob that overhangs the lower mandible, the color
black, except towards the base of the lower mandible, where it is of
a pale flesh color ; tongue extremely short, differing in this from the
Snipe ; eye dark ; the general color of the plumage above is black,
spotted and barred along the edge of each feather with pale brown;
chin, line over the eye and round the same, pale brownish white ;
neck reddish brown, streaked with black ; spots on the breast more
sparingly dispersed ; belly, thighs and vent pale plain rufous, with-
out any spots ; primaries black on the outer edges, pale brown on
the inner, and barred with black ; shaft of the outer one snowy ;
rest of the wing pale reddish brown, elegantly barred with undu-
lating lines of black; tail slightly rounded, of an ashy brown, beau-
tifully marked with herring-bones of black ; legs and naked thighs
very pale light blue or lead color, the middle toe connected with
the two outer ones, as far as the first joint, by a membrane, and bor-

LONG.BILLED CURLEW.

25

dered along the sides with a thick warty edge ; lining of the wing
dark rufous, approaching a chestnut, and thinly spotted with black.
Male and female alike in plumage. The bill continues to grow
in length until the second season, when the bird receives its per-
fect plumage. The stomach of this species is lined with an ex-
tremely thick skin, feeling to the touch like the rough hardened
palm of a sailor or blacksmith. The intestines are very tender,
measuring usually about three feet in length, and as thick as a
Swan’s quill. On the front, under the skin, there are two thick
callosities, which border the upper side of the eye, lying close to
the skull. These are common, I believe, to most of the Tringa
and Scolopax tribes, and are probably designed to protect the skull
from injury while the bird is probing and searching in the sand
and mud.

This species was observed by Lewis and Clarke as high up as
the sources of the Missouri. On the 22d of June they found the
females were sitting : the eggs, which are of a pale blue, with black
specks, were laid upon the bare ground.*

* Hist, of the Exped. vol. I, p. 279, 8vo.

VOL. VIII.

G

26

YELLOW-CROWNED HERON.

JlRDEJl VIOLACER.

[Plate LXV.— Fig. 1.]

Lath. Ind. Orn, p. 690, JVo, 50; A, Cayanensis^ Id. p. 680, JVo. 17. — Gen, Syn. Ill, />. 80,
No. 46; Cayenne Night Heron^ Id. p, 56, No. 16. — Le Crabier de Bahama., Briss. V, p.
481,41. — Crested Bittern, Catesby, I, pL 79. — Le Crabier gris-de-fer, Buff. VII, p,
399; Le Bihorcau de Cayenne, Id. p. 439. PI. Enl. 899. — Arct. Zool. No. 352. — Gmel.
Syst, I, p, 631, No. 16 ; A, Cayennensis, Id. p. 626, No, 31. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3738.

THIS is one of the nocturnal species of the Heron tribe whose
manners, place and mode of building its nest, resemble greatly
those of the common Night Heron (Ardea nycticorax) ; the form
of its bill is also similar. The very imperfect figure and descrip-
tion of this species by Catesby, seems to have led the greater part
of European ornithologists astray, who appear to have copied their
accounts from that erroneous source, otherwise it is difficult to
conceive why they should either have given it the name of yellow-
crowned, or have described it as being only fifteen inches in length ;
since the crown of the perfect bird is pure white, and the whole
length very near two feet. The name, however, erroneous as it is,
has been retained in the present account, for the purpose of more
particularly pointing out its absurdity, and designating the species.

This bird inhabits the lower parts of South Carolina, Geor-
gia, and Louisiana, in the summer season ; reposing during the day
among low swampy woods, and feeding only in the night. It
builds in societies, making its nest with sticks among the branches
of low trees, and lays four pale blue eggs. The species is not nu-
merous in Carolina, which, with its solitary mode of life, makes
this bird but little known there. It abounds on the Bahama
islands, where it also breeds, and great numbers of the young, as

r'rf'/t

(

. % ’

I

Li

4.'^

«•

V > i<y^ 9^, ^

*

i

"< *

YELLOW-CROWNED HERON.

27

we are told, are yearly taken for the table, being accounted in that
quai tei excellent eating. This bird also extends its migrations
into Virginia, and even farther north ; one of them having been
shot a few years ago on the borders of Schuylkill below Phila-
delphia.

The food of this species consists of small fish, crabs and li-
zards, particularly the former ; it also appears to have a strong
attachment to the neighborhood of the ocean.

The Yellow-crowned Heron is twenty-tAvo indies in length,
from the point of the bill to the end of the tail ; the long floAving
plumes of the back extend four inches farther; breadth from lip
to tip of the expanded wings thirty-four inches ; bill black, stout,
and about four inches in length, the upper mandible grooved ex-
actly like that of the common Night Heron ; lores pale green ;
irides fiery red ; head and part of the neck black, marked on each
cheek with an oblong spot of white ; crested crown and upper part
of the head white, ending in two long narroAV tapering plumes of
pure Avhite, more than seven inches long ; under these arc a few
others of a blackish color ; rest of the neck and Avhole loAver parts
fine ash, somewhat whitish on that part of the neck where it joins
the black ; upper parts a dark ash, each feather streaked broadly
down the centre with black, and bordered Avith Avhite; wing quills
deep slate, edged finely with white ; tail even at the end, and of
the same ash color ; wing-coverts deep slate, broadly edged with
pale cream ; from each shoulder proceed a number of long loosely
webbed tapering feathers, of an ash color, streaked broadly doAvn
the middle with black, and extending four inches or more beyond
the tips of the wings ; legs and feet yelloAV ; middle claAV pecti-
nated. Male and female, as in the common Night Heron, alike
in plumage.

28

GREAT HERON.

ARDEA HERODIAS.

[Plate LXV.— Fig. 2.]

Le H6ron hupe de Virginie^ Briss. V, /j. 410, 10 ; Le Heron de la Baye de Hudsojh Id. 407,
jVb. 7. — Le Grand Htron^ Buff. VII, p. 385 ; Id. p. 386. — Larger crested Heron, Cates-
BY, App. pi. IG, 1. — Lath. Syn. HI,/*. 85, No, 51; Red-shouldered Heron, Id, No,
52. — Arct. Zool. No. 341, 342. — Ind. Om. p, 692, No, 56 ; A. Hudsonias, No. 57. — Ash-
colored Heron from North America, Edwards, pi. 135. — Gmel. Syst, \, p, 630, No, 15;
p. 632, No. 18. — Peale’s Museum, No, 3629; Young, 3631.

THE history of this large and elegant bird having been long
involved in error and obscurity,* I have taken more than common
pains to present a faithful portrait of it in this place ; and to add
to that every fact and authentic particular relative to its manners
which may be necessary to the elucidation of the subject.

The Great Heron is a constant inhabitant of the Atlantic
coast from New York to Florida; in deep snows and severe wea-
ther seeking the open springs of the cedar and cypress swamps,
and the muddy inlets occasionally covered by the tides. On the
higher inland parts of the country, beyond the mountains, they are
less numerous ; and one which was shot in the upper parts of New
Hampshire, was described to me as a great curiosity. Many of
their breeding places occur in both Carolinas, chiefly in the vici-
nity of the sea. In the lower parts of New Jersey they have also
their favorite places for building, and rearing their young. These

^ Latham says of this species, that “ all the upper parts of the body, the belly, tail and
legs, are brown and this description has been repeated by every subsequent compiler. Buf-
fon, with his usual eloquent absurdity, describes the Heron as “ exhibiting the picture of wretch-
edness, anxiety and indigence ; condemned to struggle perpetually with misery and want ; sick-
ened with the restless cravings of a famished appetite a description so ridiculously untrue,
that, were it possible for these birds to comprehend it, it would excite the risibility of the whole
tribe.

GREAT HERON.

29

are generally in the gloomy solitudes of the tallest cedar swamps,
where, if unmolested, they continue annually to breed for many
years. These swamps are from half a mile to a mile in breadth,
and sometimes five or six in length, and appear as if they occupied
the former channel of some choked up river, stream, lake, or arm
of the sea. The appearance they present to a stranger is singu-
lar: a front of tall and perfectly straight trunks, rising to the
height of fifty or sixty feet without a limb, and crowded in every
direction, their tops so closely woven together as to shut out the
day, spreading the gloom of a perpetual twilight below. On a
nearer approach they are found to rise out of the watei*, which,
from the impregnation of the fallen leaves, and roots of the cedars,
is of the color of brandy. Amidst this bottom of congregated
springs, the ruins of the former forest lie piled in every state of
confusion. The roots, prostrate logs, and in many places the
water, are covered with green mantling moss; while an under-
growth of laurel, fifteen or twenty feet high, intersects every open-
ing so completely, as to render a passage through laborious and
harassing beyond description : at every step you either sink to the
knees, clamber over fallen timber, squeeze yourself through be-
tween the stubborn laurels, or plunge to the middle in ponds made
by the uprooting of large trees, and which the moss concealed from
observation. In calm weather the silence of death reigns in these
dreary regions ; a few interrupted rays of light shoot across the
ffloom ; and unless for the occasional hollow screams of the Herons,
and the melancholy chirping of one or two species of small birds,
all is silence, solitude and desolation. When a breeze rises, at first
it sighs mournfully through the tops ; but as the gale inci’eases,
the tall mast-like cedars wave like fishing-poles, and rubbing
against each other, produce a variety of singular noises, that, with
the help of a little imagination, resemble shrieks, groans, or the
growling of beasts of prey.

VOL. VIII.

H

30

GREAT HERON.

On the tops of the tallest of these cedars the Herons construct
their nests, ten or fifteen pair sometimes occupying a particular
part of the swamp. The nests are large, formed of sticks, and
lined with twigs, each occupies the top of a single tree. The eggs
are generally four, of an oblong pointed form, larger than those of
a hen, and of a light greenish blue, without any spots. The young
are produced about the middle of May, and remain on the trees
\intil they are full as heavy as the old ones, being extremely fat, be-
fore they are able to fly. They breed but once in the season. If
disturbed in their breeding place, the old birds fly occasionally over
the spot, sometimes honking like a Goose, sometimes uttering a
coarse hollow grunting noise like that of a hog, but much louder.

The Great Heron is said to be fat at the full moon, and lean
at its decrease ; tliis might be accounted for by the fact of their
fishing regularly by moonlight through the greater part of the
night, as well as during the day; but the observation is not uni-
vei’sal, for at such times I have found some lean as well as others
fat. The young are said to be excellent for the table, and even
the old birds, when in good order, and properly cooked, are es-
teemed by many.

The principal food of the Great Heron is fish, for which he
watches with the most unwearied patience, and seizes them with
surprising dexterity. At the edge of a river, pond, or the seashore,
he stands fixed and motionless, sometimes for hours together.
But his stroke is as quick as thought, and as sure as fate to the first
luckless fish that approaches within his reach ; these he sometimes
beats to death, and always swallows head foremost, such being
their uniform position in the stomach. He is also an excellent
mouser, and of great service to our meadows in destroying the
short-tailed or meadow mouse, so injurious to the banks. He also
feeds eagerly on grasshoppers, various winged insects, particularly
dragon-flies, which he is very expert at striking ; and also eats the

GREAT HERON.

31

seeds of that species of nymphas usually called splatter-docks, so
abundant along our fresh-water ponds and rivers.

The Heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very
high, and to a great distance ; his neck doubled, his head drawn
in, and his long legs stretched out in a right line behind him, ap-
pearing like a tail, and probably serving the same rudder-like
office. When he leaves the seacoast, and traces on wing the
courses of the creeks or rivers upwards, he is said to prognosticate
rain ; when downwards, dry weather. He is most jealously vigi-
lant and watchful of man, so that those who wish to succeed in
shooting the Heron, must approach him entirely unseen, and by
stratagem. The same inducements, however, for his destiaiciion
do not prevail here as in Europe. Our seashores and rivers are
free to all for the amusement of fishing. Luxury has not yet con-
structed her thousands of fishponds, and surrounded them with
steel-traps, spring-guns, and Heron-snares.* In our vast fens, mea-
dows and sea marshes, this stately bird roams at pleasui-e, feast-
ing on the never-failing magazines of frogs, fish, seeds and insects
with which they abound, and of which he probably considers him-
self the sole lord and proprietor. I have several times seen the

^ “ The Heron,” says an English writer, is a very great devourer of fish, and does
more mischief in a pond than an otter. People who have kept Herons have had the curiosity to
number the fish they feed them with, into a tub of water, and counting them again afterwards,
it has been found that they will eat up fifty moderate dace and roaches in a day. It has been
found that in carp ponds visited by this bird, one Heron will eat up a thousand store carp in a
year ; and will hunt them so close as to let very few escape. The readiest method of destroying
this mischievous bird is by fishing for him in the manner of pike, with a baited hook. When
the haunt of the Heron is found out, three orfour small roach, or dace, are to be procured, and
each of them is to be baited on a wire, with a strong hook at the end, entering the wire just at
the gills, and letting it run just under the skin to the tail ; the fish will live in this manner for
five or six days, which is a very essential thing ; for if it be dead, the Heron will not touch it. A
strong line is then to be prepared of silk and wire twisted together, and is to be about two yards
long ; tie this to the wire that holds the hook, and to the other end of it there is to be tied a stone
of about a pound weight ; let three or four of these baits be sunk in different shallow parts of the
pond, and in a night or two’s time the Heron will not fail to be taken with one or other of them.”

32

GREAT HERON.

Bald Eagle attack and tease the Great Heron ; but whether for
sport, or to make him disgorge his fish, I am uncertain.

The common Heron of Europe (Ardea major) very much re-
sembles the present, and might, as usual, have probably been rank-
ed as the original stock, of which the present is a mere degenerated
species, were it not that the American is greatly superior in size and
weight to the European species, the former measuring four feet four
inches, and weighing upwards of seven pounds ; the latter three feet
three inches, and rarely weighing more than four pounds. Yet with
the exception of size, and the rust-colored thighs of the present,
they are extremely alike. The common Heron of Europe, how-
ever, is not an inhabitant of the United States.

The Great Heron does not receive his full plumage during
the first season, nor until the summer of the second. In the first
season the young birds are entirely destitute of the white plumage
of the crown, and the long pointed feathers of the back, shoulders,
and breast. In this dress I have frequently shot them in autumn.
But in the third year, both males and females have assumed their
complete dress, and, contrary to all the European accounts which
I have met with, both are then so nearly alike in color and mark-
ings, as scarcely to be distinguished from each other ; both having
the long flowing crest, and all the ornamental white pointed plu-
mage of the back and breast. Indeed this sameness in the plumage
of the males and females, when arrived at their perfect state, is a
characteristic of the whole of the genus with which I am acquainted.
AVhether it be different with those of Europe, or that the young
and imperfect birds have been hitherto mistaken for females I will
not pretend to say, tho I think the latter conjecture highly proba-
ble, as the Night Raven (Ardea nycticorax) has been known in
Europe for several centuries, and yet in all their accounts the same-
ness of the colors and plumage of the male and female of that bird
is nowhere mentioned ; on the contrary, the young or yearling
bird has been universally described as the female.

GREAT HERON.

33

On the eighteenth of May I examined, both externally and by
dissection, five specimens of the Great Heron, all in complete plu-
mage, killed in a cedar swamp near the nead of Tuckahoe river, in
Cape May county. New Jersey. In this case the females could
not be mistaken, as some of the eggs were nearly ready for exclu-
sion.

Length of the Great Heron four feet four inches from the
point of the bill to the end of the tail, and to the bottom of the
feet five feet four inches ; extent six feet; bill eight inches long,
and one inch and a quarter in width, of a yellow color, in some
blackish on the ridge, extremely sharp at the point, the edges also
sharp, and slightly serrated near the extremity ; space round the
eye from the nostril, a light purplish blue ; irides orange, bright-
ening into yellow where they join the pupil ; forehead and middle
of the crown white, passing over the eye ; sides of the crown and
hind-head deep slate or bluish black, and elegantly crested, the
two long tapering black feathers being full eight inches in length ;
chin, cheeks, and sides of the head, white for several inches; throat
white, thickly streaked with double rows of black ; rest of the neck
brownish ash, from the lower part of which shoot a great number
of long narrow pointed white feathers that spread over the breast
and reach nearly to the thighs ; under these long plumes the breast
itself, and middle of the belly are of a deep blackish slate, the latter
streaked with white ; sides blue ash, vent white ; thighs and ridges
of the wings a dark purplish rust color ; whole upper parts of the
wings, tail, and body, a fine light ash, the last ornamented with
a profusion of long narrow white tapering feathers, originating on
the shoulders or upper part of the back, and falling gracefully over
the wings ; primaries very dark slate, nearly black ; naked thighs
brownish yellow; legs brownish black, tinctured with yellow, and
netted with seams of whitish ; in some the legs are nearly black.
Little difference could be perceived between the plumage of the

I

VOL. VIII.

34

GREAT HERON.

males and females ; the latter were rather less, and the long point-
ed plumes of the back were not quite so abundant.

The young birds of the first year have the whole upper part
of the head of a dark slate ; want the long plumes of the breast
and back ; and have the body, neck, and lesser coverts of the wings,
considerably tinged with ferruginous.

On dissection the gullet was found of great width, from the
mouth to the stomach, which has not the two strong muscular coats
that form the gizzard of some birds ; it was more loose, of consi-
derable and uniform thickness throughout, and capable of contain-
ing nearly a pint ; it was entirely filled with fish, among which were
some small eels, all placed head downwards ; the intestines mea-
sured nine feet in length, were scarcely as thick as a goose-quill,
and incapable of being distended : so that the vulgar story of the
Heron swallowing eels, which passing suddenly through him are
repeatedly swallowed, is absurd. On the external coat of the sto-
mach of one of these birds, opened soon after being shot, some-
thing like a blood vessel lay in several meandering folds, enveloped
in a membrane, and closely adhering to the surface. On carefully
opening this membrane it was found to contain a large round liv-
ing worm, eight inches in length ; another of like length was found
coiled in the same manner on another part of the external coat.
It may also be worthy of notice, that the intestines of the young
birds of the first season, killed in the month of October, when they
were nearly as large as the others, measured only six feet four or
five inches, those of the full grown ones from eight to nine feet in
length.

This species is common in the vicinity of the river St. John,
in East Florida, during the winter ; becomes very fat, and is excel-
lent eating.

35

AMERICAN BITTERN.

JlRDEJl MLYOR.

[Plate LXV.— Fig. 3.]

Le Butor de la Baye de Hudson, Briss. V, p. 449, 25. — Buff. VII, p, 430. — Edw. 136. —
Lath. Syn, III, p. 58, var. A.—Ardea StellariSi var* A, Gmel. Syst. I, p» 636.—

Zool No. 357. — Feale^s Museum, No. 3727.

THIS is another nocturnal species, common to all our sea and
river marshes, though nowhere numerous ; it rests all day among
the reeds and I’ushes, and unless disturbed, flies and feeds only
during the night. In some places it is called the Indian Hen ; on
the seacoast of New Jersey it is known by the name of Dimkadoo,
a word probably imitative of its common note. They are also
found in the interior, having myself killed one at the inlet of the
Seneca Lake, in October. It utters at times a hollow guttural
note among the reeds ; but has nothing of that loud booming
sound for which the European Bittern is so remarkable. This
circumstance, with its great inferiority of size, and difference of
marking, sufficiently pi'ove them to be two distinct species, al-
though hitherto the present has been classed as a mere variety of
the European Bittern. These birds, we are informed, visit Severn
river, at Hudson's Bay, about the beginning of June ; make their
nests in swamps, laying four cinereous green eggs among the long
grass. The young are said to be at first black.

These birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow kwa, and are
then easily shot down, as they fly heavily. Like other night birds
their sight is most acute during the evening twilight; but their
hearing is at all times exquisite.

The American Bittern is twenty-seven inches long, and three
feet four inches in extent ; from the point of the bill to the extre-

36

AMERICAN BITTERN.

mity of the toes it measures three feet ; the bill is four inches long,
the upper mandible black, the lower greenish yellow; lores and
eyelids yellow ; irides bidght yellow ; upper part of the head flat,
and remarkably deprest ; the plumage there is of a deep blackish
brown, long behind and on the neck, the general color of which
is a yellowish brown shaded with darker ; this long plumage of
the neck the bird can throw forward at will; when irritated, so as
to give him a more formidable appearance ; throat whitish, streak-
ed with deep brown ; from the posterior and lower part of the
auriculars a broad patch of deep black passes diagonally across
the neck, a distinguished characteristic of this species ; the back
is deep brown, barred and mottled with innumerable specks and
streaks of brownish yellow ; quills black, with a leaden gloss, and
tipt with yellowish brown ; legs and feet yellow, tinged with pale
green ; middle claw pectinated ; belly light yellowish brown, streak-
ed with darker ; vent plain ; thighs sprinkled on the outside with
grains of dark brown ; male and female nearly alike, the latter
somewhat less. The tail contains twelve feathers.

In the Supplement to the Ornithological Dictionary of Mon-
tagu, a Heron is figured and described under the name of Jlrclea
lentiginosa; and is said to have been shot in England. Stephens
refers this bird to our Bittern ; and Temminck sanctions this re-
ference by quoting the former as a synonyme of the latter. We
do not hesitate to assert that Montagu’s Heron is not our species,
which it little resembles. The figure shows it to be a young bird ;
and one should suppose that the specimen in the British museum
would enable the English naturalists to identify the species at home,
without recurring to a foreign species, which it is not even proba-
ble could have been an accidental wanderer so far from its native
shores.

37

LEAST BITTERN.

JlRDEJl EXILIS,

[Plate LXV— Fig, 4, Male.]

Minute Bittern, Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 66, No. 28.— Ind. Orn. p. 683. No, 29.— Gmel. Sijst. I,
p. 645, No. 88.— Museum, No. 3814; Femule, 3815.

THIS is the smallest known species of the whole tribe. It
is commonly found in fresh water meadows, and rarely visits the
salt marshes. One shot near Great Egg-Harbor was presented
to me as a very uncommon bird. In the meadows of Schuylkill
and Delaware, below Philadelphia, a few of these birds breed
every year ; making their nests in the thick tussocks of grass, in
swampy places. When alarmed they seldom fly far, but take
shelter among the reeds or long grass. They are scarcely ever
seen exposed, but skulk during the day ; and, like the preceding
species, feed chiefly in the night.

This little creature measures twelve inches in lengtli, and
sixteen in extent ; the bill is more than two inches and a quarter
long) yellow, ridged with black, and very sharp pointed \ space
round the eye pale yellow ; irides bright yellow ; whole upper part
of the crested head, the back, scapulars and tail, very deep slate,
reflecting slight tints of green ; throat white, here and there tinged
Avith buff; hind part of the neck dark chestnut bay, sides of the
neck, cheeks, and line over the eye, brown buff ; lesser wing-co-
verts the same; greater wing-coverts chestnut, with a spot of the
same at the bend of the wing, the primary coverts are also tipt
with the same ; wing quills dark slate; breast white, tinged with
ochre, under which lie a number of blackish feathers ; belly and
vent Avhite ; sides pale ochre ; legs greenish on the shins, hind
part and feet yelloAV ; thighs feathered to within a quarter of an

K

VOL. VIII.

38

LEAST BITTERN.

inch of the knees ; midde claw pectinated ; toes tinged with pale
green ; feet large^ the span of the foot measuring two inches and
three quarters. Male and female nearly alike in color. The
young birds are brown on the crown and back. The stomach of
the above described was filled with small fish ; and the intestines^
which were extremely slender, measured in length about four feet.

The Least Bittern is also found in Jamaica, and several of the
West India Islands.

In the month of September this species becomes very fat, and
is then excellent eating.

39

WOOD IBIS.

TJINTJILUS LOCULATOE.

[Plate LXVL— Fig. 1.]

Gmel. Syst^ p, 647. — Le grand Coiirly d'Amenque^ Briss. V, p. 335, 8. — Couricaca,
Buff. VII, /i. 276. PL Enl. 868. — JVood Pelican^ Catesby, I, 81. — Arct, ZooLNo, 360.
— Lath. Syn. HI,/?. 104. — Ind. Orn. /». 702. — Peale’s Ab. 3832.

THE Wood Ibis inhabits the lower parts of Louisiana, Ca-
rolina, and Georgia ; is very common in Florida, and extends as
far south as Cayenne, Brasil, and various parts of South America.
In the United States it is migratory; but has never, to my know-
ledge, been found to the north of Virginia. Its favorite haunts
are watery savannahs, and inland swamps, where it feeds on fish
and reptiles. The French inhabitants of Louisiana esteem it good
eating.

With the particular manners of this species I am not per-
sonally acquainted ; but the following characteristic traits are given
of it by Mr. William Bartram, who had the best opportunities of
noting them.

“ This solitary bird,” he observes, “ does not associate in
flocks ; but is generally seen alone, commonly near the banks of
great rivers, in vast marshes or meadows, especially such as are
covered by inundations, and also in the vast deserted rice planta-
tions ; he stands alone, on the topmost limb of tall dead cypress
trees, his neck contracted or drawn in upon his shoulders, and his
beak resting like a long scythe upon his breast ; in this pensive
posture, and solitary situation, they look extremely grave, sorrow-
ful and melancholy, as if in the deepest thought. They are never
seen on the seacoast, and yet are never found at a great distance

40

WOOD IBIS.

from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs, and other
reptiles.”*

The figure of this bird given in the plate was drawn from a
very fine specimen, sent from Georgia by Stephen Elliot, esq., of
Beaufort, South Carolina ; its size and markings were as follow :

Length three feet two inches ; bill nearly nine inches long,
straight for half its length, thence curving downwards to the ex-
tremity, and full two inches thick at the base, where it rises high
in the head, the whole of a brownish horn color ; the under man-
dible fits into the upper in its whole length, and both are very
sharp edged ; face and naked head, and part of the neck, dull
greenish blue, wrinkled ; eye large, seated high in the head ; irides
dark red ; under the lower jaw is a loose corrugated skin, or pouch,
capable of containing about half a pint ; whole body, neck and
lower parts, white; quills dark glossy green and purple; tail about
two inches shorter than the wings, even at the end, and of a deep
and rich violet ; legs and naked thighs dusky green ; feet and toes
yellowish, sprinkled with black ; feet almost semipalmated, and
bordered to the claws with a narrow membrane ; some of the
greater wing-coverts are black at the root, and shafted with black ;
plumage on the upper ridge of the neck generally worn, as in the
present specimen, with rubbing on the back, while in its common
position of resting its bill on its breast, in the manner of the White
Ibis. (See fig. 3.)

The female has only the head and chin naked ; both are sub-
ject to considerable changes of color when young; the body being
found sometimes blackish above, the belly cinereous, and spots of
black on the wing-coverts ; all of which, as the birds advance in
age, gradually disappear, and leave the plumage of the body, &c.
as has been described.

^ Travels, &c. p. 150.

41

SCARLET IBIS.

IBIS RUBER.

\ [Plate LXVL— Fig. 2.]

Lath, III, p* 106 ; Brown Ibisy Id. p. 110, No. 8, — Tantalus rubeVy Ind. Orn. p. 703, No. 2 ;
T. fuscusy Id. p. 705, No, 8. — Gmel. Syst. /, p. 651, No. 5, No. 7. — Lc Courly rouge du
BrSsily Briss. V, p. 344, pi. 29, Jig. 1, 2; Le Courly brun du Bresily Id. p. 341. — Buff.
VIII, p. 35, 42. — Red CurleWy Catesby, I, 84; Brown Curlew^ Id. 83, young. — Arct,
Zool. No. 361, 362. — Courly rouge du Brcsily de Page de deuxansy PL Enl. 80 ; Id. dcPage
de trois ansy 81. — Peale’s Museuniy No. 3864 ; femalcy 3865.

THIS beautiful bird is found in the most southern parts of
Carolina ; also in Georgia and Florida, chiefly about the seashore
and its vicinity. In most parts of America within the tropics, and
in almost all the West India Islands, it is said to be common ; also
in the Bahamas. Of its manners little more has been collected
than that it frequents the borders of the sea, and shores of the
neighboring rivers, feeding on small fry, shell-fish, sea worms and
small crabs. It is said frequently to perch on trees, sometimes in
large flocks ; but to lay its eggs on the ground, on a bed of leaves.
The eggs are described as being of a greenish color ; the young
when hatched black, soon after gray, and before they arc able to fly
white, continuing gradually to assume their red color until the third
year, when the scarlet plumage is complete. It is also said that
they usually keep in flocks, the young and old birds separately.
They have frequently been domesticated. One of them which
lived for some time in the Museum of this city, was dexterous at
catching flies, and most usually walked about, on that pursuit, in
the position in which it is represented in the plate.

The Scarlet Ibis measures twenty-three inches in length, and
thirty-seven in extent ; the bill is five inches long, thick, and some-
what of a square form at the base, gradually bent downwards, and

VOL. VIII. I-*

B. M ErmUART,
West ('hp.stey Pa.,
AO*.*-

Not to bo Uxuied on my Conditf <

42

SCARLET IBIS.

sharply ridged, of a black color, except near the base, where it in-
clines to red ; irides dark hazel ; the naked face is finely wrinkled,
and of a pale red ; chin also bare and wrinkled for about an inch ;
whole plumage a rich glowing scarlet, except about three inches
of the extremities of the four outer quill feathers, which are of a
deep steel blue; legs and naked part of the thighs pale red; the
three anterior toes united by a membrane as far as the first joint.

Whether the female differs in the color of her plumage from
the male, or what changes both undergo during the first and se-
cond years, I am unable to say from personal observation. Being
a scarce species with us, and only found on our most remote
southern shores, a sufficient number of specimens have not been
procured to enable me to settle this matter with sufficient certainty.

It will be perceived in the following article that the author
leaned to the opinion of the White Ibis and the present being iden-
tical. In this opinion the editor would concur ; but as he cannot,
at this time, have access to recent specimens, in order to determine
the point, he will permit the name of albiis to remain, although
fully persuaded of the species being nominal.

It would appear that this species inhabits the western coast of
America. In the Appendix to the History of Lewis and Clark’s
Expedition, vol. II, p. 514, under the date of March 7, the Journa-
list says, “ A bird of a scarlet color, as large as a common phea-
sant, with a long tail, has returned ; one of them was seen to-day
near the fort.” As all long-legged birds fly with their legs in a
horizontal position, the legs of that above mentioned must have
been mistaken for a tail.

43

WHITE IBIS.

IBIS BLBUS.

[Plate LXVL— Fig. 3.]

Le Courly hlanc du Brhxl, Briss. V, p. 339, 10.— Bufp. VIII, p, 41. Courhjhhnc d'AmSrique,
PL Enl 915,— White Curlew, Catesby, I, pi 82.— Lath. Sijn. Ill, p. Ill, No, 9 Tan-

talus albus, Ind. Orn. p, 705, No. 9.— Gmel. Syst, I, p, 651, N'o. Q.—Arct, Zool, No, 363.

THIS species bears in every respect, except that of color, so
strong a resemblance to the preceding, that I have been almost
induced to believe it the same, in its white or imperfect stage of
color. The length and form of the bill, the size, conformation,
as well as color of the legs, the general length and breadth, and
even the steel blue on the four outer quill feathers, are exactly alike
in both. These suggestions, however, are not made with any cer-
tainty of its being the same ; but as circumstances which may lead
to a more precise examination of the subject hereafter.

I found this species pretty numerous on the borders of lake
Ponchartrain, near New Orleans, in the month of June, and also
observed the Indians sitting in market with strings of them for
sale. I met with them again on the low keys or islands off the
peninsula of Florida, Mr. Bartrara observes that “ they fly in
large flocks or squadrons, evening and morning, to and fi’om their
feeding places or roosts, and are usually called Spanish Curlews.
They feed chiefly on cray fish, whose cells they probe, and with
their strong pinching bills drag them out.” The low islands
above mentioned abound with these creatures and small crabs, the
ground in some places seeming alive with them, so that the rat-
tling of their shells against one another was incessant. My vene-
rable friend, in his observations on these birds adds, It is a
pleasing sight at times of high winds, and heavy thunder storms,

44

WHITE IBIS.

to observe the numerous squadrons of these Spanish Curlews,
driving to and fro, turning and tacking about high up in the air,
when by their various evolutions in the different and opposite cur-
rents of the wind, high in the clouds, their silvery white plumage
gleams and sparkles like the brightest crystal, reflecting the sun-
beams that dart upon them between the dark clouds/’

The White Ibis is twenty-three inches long, and thirty-seven
inches in extent ; bill formed exactly like that of the scarlet spe-
cies, of a pale red, blackish towards the point ; face a reddish flesh
color and finely wrinkled ; irides whitish ; whole plumage pure
white, except about four inches of the tips of the four outer quill
feathers, which are of a deep and glossy steel blue ; legs and feet
pale red, webbed to the first joint ; the tail is composed of twelve
feathers.

These birds I frequently observed standing on the dead limbs
of trees, and on the shore, resting on one leg, their body in an al-
most perpendicular position, as represented in the figure, the head
and bill resting on the breast. This appears to be its most com-
mon mode of resting, and perhaps sleeping, as in all those which
I examined the plumage on the upper ridge of the neck, and upper
part of the back, was evidently worn by this habit. The same is
equally observable on the neck and back of the Wood Ibis.

The present species rarely extends its visits north of North
Carolina, and even in that state is only seen for a few weeks to-
wards the end of summer. In Florida they are common; but sel-
dom remove to any great distance from the sea.

45

RED FLAMINGO.

FHOEJVICOPTESUS RUBER.

[Plate LXVL— Fig. 4.]

Gmel. Syst, I, p. 612. — Le Flamant., Briss. VI, p. 532, pi. 47, Jig, 1.— Buff, VIII, p,
475, pi. 39. PL Enl. 63. — Lath. Syn, III, p. 299, pi. 93. — Ind. Orn. p. 788. — Arct.
ZooLNo. 422. — Catesby, I,/)/. 73, 74. — Temm. Man, cPOrn. p. 587. — Peale’s Mu-
seum, No. 3545, bird of the first year; No. 3546, bird of the second year.

THIS very singular species being occasionally seen on the
southern frontiers of the United States, and on the peninsula of
East Florida, where it is more common, has a claim to a niche in
our Ornithological Museum, although the author regrets that from
personal observation he can add nothing to the particulars of its
history, already fully detailed in various European works. From
the most respectable of these, the Synopsis of Dr. Latham, he has
collected such particulars as appear authentic and interesting.

“ This remarkable bird has the neck and legs in a greater dis-
proportion than any other bird, the length from the end of the bill
to that of the tail is four feet two or three inches, but to the end
of the claws measures sometimes more than six feet. The bill is
four inches and a quarter long, and of a construction different from
that of any other bird ; the upper mandible very thin and flat, and
somewhat moveable ; the under thick, both of them bending down-
wards from the middle ; the nostrils are linear, and placed in a
blackish membrane ; the end of the bill as far as the bend is black,
from thence to the base reddish yellow, round the base quite to the
eye covered with a flesh colored cere ; the neck is slender, and of
a great length ; the tongue large, fleshy, filling the cavity of the
bill, furnished with twelve or more hooked papillae on each side,
turning backwards ; the tip a sharp cartilaginous substance. The

M

VOL. VIII.

46

RED FLAMINGO.

bird when in full plumage is wholly of a most deep scarlet, (those
of Africa said to be the deepest,) except the quills, which are black;
fi'om the base of the thigh to the claws measures thirty-two inches,
of which the feathered part takes up no more than three inches ;
the bare part above the knee thirteen inches, and from thence to
the claws sixteen ; the color of the bare parts is red, and the toes
are furnished with a web as in the Duck genus ; but is deeply in-
dented. The legs are not straight, but slightly bent, the shin rather
projecting,

“These birds do not gain their full plumage till the third year.
In the first they are of a grayish white for the most part ; the se-
cond of a clearer white, tinged with red, or rather rose color ; but
the wings and scapulars are red ; in the third year a general glow-
ing scarlet manifests itself throughout; the bill and legs also keep
pace with the gi*adation of color in the plumage, these parts
changing to their colors by degrees as the bird approaches to an
adult state.

“ Flamingoes prefer a warm climate, in the old continent not
often met with beyond forty degrees north or south. Every where
seen on the African coast, and adjacent isles, quite to the cape of
Good Hope,* and now and then on the coasts of Spain,']* Italy, and
those of France lying in the Mediterranean sea ; being at times met
Avith at Marseilles, and for some way up the Rhone. In some sea-
sons frequents Aleppo,§ and parts adjacent. Seen also on the Per-
sian side of the Caspian sea, and from thence along the western
coast as far as the Wolga; though this at uncertain times, and
chiefly in considerable flocks, coming from the north coast mostly
in October and November; but so soon as the wind changes they
totally disappear.^ They breed in the Cape Verd isles, particularly

* In Zee Coow river, Phil, Trans. Once plenty in the Isle of France, Voy. to Mauri-
tius, p. 66.

t About Valencia, in the lake Albufere. Dillon’s Trav. p. 374.

^ Russel’s Aleppo, p. 69.

If Decouv. Russ, h, p. 248.

RED FLAMINGO.

47

ill that of Sal.^ The nest is of a singular construction, made of
mud, in shape of a hillock, with a cavity at top ; in this the female
lays generally two white eggs,^ of the size of those of a Goose, but
more elongated. The hillock is of such a height as to admit of
the bird’s sitting on it conveniently, or rather standing, as the legs
are placed one on each side at full length.^ The young cannot fly
till full grown, but run very fast.

“ Flamingoes, for the most part, keep together in flocks ; and
now and then are seen in great numbers together, except in breed-
ing time. Dampier mentions having, with two more in company,
killed fourteen at once ; but this was effected by secreting them-
selves ; for they are vei'y shy birds, and will by no means suffer
any one to approach openly near enough to shoot them.^ Kolben
observes that they are very numerous at the Cape, keeping in the
day on the borders of the lakes and rivers, and lodging tliemselves
of nights in the long grass on the hills. They are also common
to various places in the warmer parts of America, freciuenting the
same latitudes as in other quarters of the world ; being met with
in Peru, Chili, Cayenne,""^ and the coast of Brasil, as well as the
various islands of the West Indies. Sloane found them in Ja-
maica ; but particularly at the Bahama Islands, and that of Cuba,
where they breed. A^hen seen at a distance they appeal as a le-
giment of soldiers, being arranged alongside of one another, on
the borders of the rivers, searching for food, which chiefly consists
of small fish,ff or the eggs of them, and of water insects, which
they search after by plunging in the bill and part of the head ;

* Damp. Voy. i, p. 70.

t They never lay more than three, and seldom fewer. Phil. Trans.

^ Sometimes will lay the eggs on a projecting part of a low rock, if it be placed sufficient-
ly convenient so as to admit of the legs being placed one on each side. Linn.

^ Davies talks of the gunner disguising himself in an ox hide, and by this means getting
within gunshot. Hist. Barbad. p. 88.

** Called there by the name of Tococo.

ft Small shell fish. Gesner.

48

RED FLAMINGO.

from time to time trampling with their feet to muddy the water,
that their prey may be raised from the bottom. In feeding are
said to twist the neck in such a manner that the upper part of the
bill is applied to the ground f during this one of them is said to
stand sentinel, and the moment he sounds the alarm, the whole
flock take wing. This bird when at rest stands on one leg, the
other being drawn up close to the body, with the head placed un-
der the wing on that side of the body it stands on.

“ The flesh of these birds is esteemed pretty good meat ; and
the young thought by some equal to that of a Partridge ;f but the
greatest dainty is the tongue, which was esteemed by the ancients
an exquisite morsel. § Are sometimes caught young and brought
up tame ; but are ever impatient of cold, and in this state will sel-
dom live a great while, gradually losing their color, flesh and ap-
petite ; and dying for want of that food which in a state of nature,
at large, they were abundantly supplied with."’

Linnaeus. Brisson.

\ Commonly fat and accounted delicate. Davies’s Hist. Barbad. p. 88. The inhabitants
of Provence always throw away the flesh, as it tastes fishy, and only make use of the feathers
as ornaments to other birds at particular entertainments. Dillon’s Trav. p. 374.

^ See Plin. IX, cap, 48.

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49

SURF DUCK.

JIJVJIS PERSPICILLJITJI.

[Plate LXVII. — Fig. 1, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 524, No. 25. — La grande Macreuse de la Baye de Hudson^ Briss. VI, p.

425, 30. — La Macreuse a large bec^ Buff. IX, p. 244. PI. Enl. 995. — Edw. pi. 155.

Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 479. — Ind. Orn. p. 847, No. 42. — Phil. Trans. LXII, p. 417. — Blade
Buck, Arct. Zool. No. 483. — Canard Marchand, Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 853. — Peale’s
Museum, No. 2788 ; female, 2789.

THIS Duck is peculiar to America, and altogether confined
to the shores and bays of the sea, particularly where the waves
roll over the sandy beach. Their food consists principally of
those small bivalve shell-fish already described, spout-fish, and
others that lie in the sand near its surface. For these they dive
almost constantly ; and the facility and skill with which they either
glide through the rolling billows, or mount over them, excite asto-
nishment. They seldom or never visit the salt marshes. They
continue on our shores during the winter ; and leave us early in
May for their breeding places in the north. Their skins arc re-
markably strong ; and their flesh coarse, tasting of fish. I'hey are
shy birds, not easily approached; and are common in winter along
the whole coast, from the river St, Lawrence to Florida.

The length of this species is twenty inches, extent thirty-two
inches ; the bill is yellowish red, elevated at the base, and marked
on the side of the upper mandible with a large square patch of
black, preceded by another space of a pearl color ; the part of the
bill thus marked swells or projects considerably from the common
surface ; the nostrils are large and pervious ; the sides of the bill
broadly serrated or toothed ; both mandibles are furnished with a
nail at the extremity, that of the lou’er mandible precisely resem-

N

VOL. VIII.

50

SURF DUCK.

bles the thumb nail of a man ; irides white, or very pale cream ;
whole plumage a shining black, marked on the crown and hind-
head with two triangular spaces of pure white ; the plumage on
both these spots is shorter and thinner than the rest ; legs and feet
blood red ; membrane of the feet black ; the primary quills are of
a deep dusky brown.

On dissection the gullet was found to be gradually enlarged
to the gizzard, which was altogether filled with broken shell-fish.
There was a singular hard expansion at the commencement of the
windpipe ; and another much larger about three quarters of an
inch above where it separates into the two lobes of the lungs ; this
last was larger than a Spanish hazel-nut, flat on one side and con-
vex on the other. The protuberance on each side of the bill
communicated with the nostril, and was hollow. All these were
probably intended to contain supplies of air for the bird’s support
while under water ; the last may also protect the head from the
sharp edges of the shells. The interior membrane of the gizzard
is very tough and strong, resembling leather. On dissecting one
specimen I found in its gizzard a muscle two and one eighth inches
long, and one and one eighth inch wide.

The female is altogether of a sooty brown, lightest about the
neck ; the prominences on the bill are scarcely observable and its
color dusky.

This species was also found by capt. Cooke at Nootka Sound,
on the northwest coast of America.

Although naturalists describe this Duck as peculiar to Ame-
rica, yet Temminck informs us that some stragglers have been
found at the Orkney Isles : he consequently records it among the
birds of Europe.

51

BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK.

JIjYAS JILBEOLA.

[Plate LXVIL — Fig. 2, Male. — Fig. 3, FeinaleJ]

Le Canard d‘‘hyver^ Briss. VI, p. 349 ; La sarcelle de la Loumane^ Id. p. 461, pi. 41,^^. 1 ;
Lasarcelle de la Caroline^ Id. p. 464. — Le petit Canard a grosse tite^ Buff. IX, p. 249 ; La
sarcelle blanche et noire^ Id. p. 284 ; La sarcelle de la Caroline., Id. p. 286. PI. Enl. 948. —
Little Black and White Duck., Edwards, II, pi. 100. — Buffers head Duck^ Catesby, I,
95; Little Brown Duck., Id. 98, female. — Arct, Zool. Ab. 4S7, 489. — Lath. Syn. Ill, p.
533. — Ind. Orn. p, 866, No. 86. — Gmel. Syst, I, p. 517, No. 18; A. bucephala. Id. p.
521, Ab. 21 ; A. rustica., Id. p. 524, No. 24. — Peale’s Museum^ No, 2730 ; female^ 2731,

THIS pretty little species, usually known by the name of the
Biiiter-box^ or Butter-ball, is common to the seashores, rivers and
lakes of the United States, in every quarter of the country, during
autumn and winter. About the middle of April, or early in May,
they retire to the north to breed. They are dexterous divers, and
fly with extraordinary velocity. So early as the latter part of Fe-
bruary the males are observed to have violent disputes for the
females ; at this time they are more commonly seen in flocks ; but
during the preceding part of winter they usually fly in pairs. Their
note is a short quak. They feed much on shell-fish, shrimps, &c.
They are sometimes exceedingly fat ; though their flesh is inferior
to many others for the table. The male exceeds the female in
size, and greatly in beauty of plumage.

The Buffel-headed Duck, or rather as it has originally been,
the Biiffaloe-headed Duck, from the disproportionate size of its
head, is fourteen inches long, and twenty-three inches in extent ;
the bill is short, and of a pearl color, which changes to leaden af-
ter death ; the plumage of the head, and half of the neck, is thick,
long and velvetty, projecting greatly over the lower part of the
neck — this plumage on the forehead and nape is rich glossy green,

52

BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK.

changing into a shining purple on the crown and sides of the neck;
from the eyes backward passes a broad band of pure white ; iris
of the eye dark ; back, wings, and part of the scapulars, black ;
rest of the scapulars, lateral band along the wing, and whole breast,
snowy white ; belly, vent, and tail-coverts, dusky white ; tail point-
ed, and of a hoary color.

The female is considerably less than the male, and has the
plumage of the head but slightly tumid ; the head, neck and upper
parts of the body, and wings, are sooty black, darkest on the
crown ; side of the head marked with a small oblong spot of white ;
bill dusky ; lower part of the neck ash, tipt with white ; belly dull
white ; vent cinereous , outer edges of six of the secondaries, and
their incumbent coverts, white, except the tips of the latter, which
are black ; legs and feet a livid blue ; tail hoary brown ; length of
the intestines three feet six inches. This is the Spirit Duck of Pen-
nant, so called from its dexterity in diving (Arct. Zool. No. 487.),
likewise the Little Brown Duck of Catesby (Nat. Hist. Car. pi. 98.).

This species is said to come into Budson’s bay about Severn
river in June, and make their nests in trees in the woods, near
ponds.* The young males during the first year are almost exactly
like the females in color.

Latham.

53

CANADA GOOSE.

AjY^S CAMaDEJVSIS.

[Plate LXVIL— Fig. 4.]

Gmel. S^st.- I, p. 514, No. 14. — VOye sauvage de Canada^ Briss. VI, p. 272, 4, pi 26.

L'Oie a cravatte^ Buff. IX, p. 82. PL Enl. 346. — Edw. pL 151. — Arct. ZooL No. 471.
— Catesby, I, pi. 92. — Lath. Syn. Ill, /). 450. — Ind. Orn. p. 838, A'b. 17. — Bewick,
2, p. 255. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2704,

THIS is the common Wild Goose of the United States, known
over the whole country ; whose regular periodical migrations are
the sure signals of returning spring, or approaching winter. The
tracts of their vast migratory journies are not confined to the sea-
coast or its vicinity. In their aerial voyages to and from the north,
these winged pilgrims pass over the interior on both sides of the
mountains, as far west, at least, as the Osage river ; and I have
never yet visited any quarter of the country where the inhabitants
are not familiarly acquainted with the regular passing and repass-
ing of the Wild Geese. When the vernal flight takes place, the
general opinion here is that they are on their way to the Jakes to
breed ; but the inhabitants on the confines of the great lakes that
separate us from Canada, are equally ignorant with ourselves of
the particular breeding places of these birds. There their journey
north is but commencing; and how far it extends it is impossible
for us at present to ascertain, from our little acquaintance with
those frozen regions. They were seen by Hearne, in large flocks,
within the arctic circle, and were then pursuing their way still far-
ther north. Captain Phipps speaks of seeing Wild Geese feeding
at the water’s edge, on the dreary coast of Spitzbergen, in lat.
80° 27'. It is highly probable that they extend their migrations
under the very pole itself, amid the silent desolation of unknown

O

VOL, VIII.

54

CANADA GOOSE.

countries^ shut out since creation from the prying eye of man by
everlasting and insuperable barriers of ice. That such places
abound with their suitable food we cannot for a moment doubt ;
while the absence of their great destroyer man, and the splendors
of a perpetual day, may render such regions the most suitable for
their purpose.

Having fulfilled the great law of nature, the approaching
rigors of that dreary climate oblige these vast congregated flocks
to steer for the more genial regions of the south. And no sooner
do they arrive at those countries of the earth inhabited by man,
than the work of slaughter is commenced on their ranks. The
English at Hudson’s Bay, says Pennant, depend greatly on geese,
and in favourable years kill three or four thousand, and barrel
them up for use. They send out their servants, as well as Indians,
to shoot these birds on their passage. It is in vain to pursue them;
they therefore form a row of huts, made of boughs, at musquet-
shot distance from each other, and place them in a line across the
vast marshes of the country. Each stand, or hovels as they are
called, is occupied by only a single person. These attend the
flight of the birds, and on their approach mimic their cackle so
well, that the geese will answer, and wheel and come nearer the
stand. The sportsman keeps motionless, and on his knees with
his gun cocked the whole time, and never fires till he has seen the
eyes of the Geese. He fires as they are going from him, then
picks up another gun that lies by him and discharges that. The
Geese which he has killed he sets upon sticks, as if alive, to decoy
others ; he also makes artificial birds for the same purpose. In a
good day, for they fly in very uncertain and unequal numbers, a
single Indian will kill two hundred. Notwithstanding every spe-
cies of Goose has a diflerent call, yet the Indians are admirable in
their imitations of every one. The autumnal flight lasts from the
middle of August to the middle of October; those which are taken
in this season, when the frosts begin, are preserved in their fea-

CANADA GOOSE.

55

thers, and left to be frozen for the fresh provisions of the winter
stock. The feathers constitute an article of commerce, and are
sent to England.

The vernal flight of the Geese lasts from the middle of April
until the middle of May. Their first appearance coincides with
the thawing of the swamps, when they are very lean. Their ar-
rival from the south is impatiently attended ; it is the harbinger
of the spring, and the month named by the Indians the Goose
moon. They appear usually at their settlements about St. George’s
day, O. S., and fly northward to nestle in security. They prefer
islands to the continent, as farther from the haunts of men.^

After such prodigious havoc as thus appears to be made
among these birds, and their running the gauntlet, if I may so
speak, for many hundreds of miles through such destructive fires,
no wonder they should have become more scarce, as well as shy,
by the time they reach the shores of the United States.

Their first arrival on the coast of New Jersey is early in Oc-
tober, and their first numerous appearance is the sure prognostic
of severe weather. Those which continue all winter frequent the
shallow bays and marsh islands; their principal food being the
broad tender green leaves of a marine plant which grows on stones
and shells, and is usually called sea-cabbage ; and also the roots
of the sedge, which they are frequently observed in the act of tear-
ing up. Every few days they make an excursion to the inlets on
the beach for gravel. They cross, indiscriminately, over land or
water, generally taking the nearest course to their object ; differ-
ing in this respect from the Brant, which will often go a great way
round by water rather than cross over the land. They swim well ;
and if wing-broken, dive and go a great way under water, causing
the sportsman a great deal of fatigue before he can kill them.
Except in very calm weather they rarely sleep on the water, but
roost all night in the marshes. When the shallow bays are frozen,

* Arct. Zool.

56

CANADA GOOSE.

they seek the mouths of inlets near the sea, occasionally visiting
the air holes in the ice ^ but these bays are seldom so completely
frozen as to prevent them from feeding on the bars.

The flight of the Wild Goose is heavy and laborious, gene-
rally in a straight line, or in two lines approximating to a point,
thus, > ; in both cases the van is led by an old gander, who every
now and then pipes his well known honk, as if to ask how they come
on, and the honk of “ all’s well” is generally returned by some of
the party. Their course is in a straight line, with the exception
of the undulations of their flight. When bewildered in foggy
weather, they appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying
about in an irregular manner, and for a considerable time over the
same quarter, making a great clamour. On these occasions should
they approach the earth, and alight, which they sometimes do, to
rest and recollect themselves, the only hospitality they meet with
is death and destruction from a whole neighborhood already in
arms for their ruin.

A¥ounded Geese have, in numerous instances, been completely
domesticated, and readily pair with the tame Gray Geese. The
offspring are larger than either; butthe characteidstic marks of the
Wild Goose still predominate. The gunners on the seashore have
long been in the practice of taming the wounded of both sexes,
and have sometimes succeeded in getting them to pair and produce.
The female always seeks out the most solitary place for her nest,
not far from the water. On the approach of every spring, however,
these birds discover symptoms of great uneasiness, frequently look-
ing up into the air, and attempting to go off. Some whose wings
have been closely cut, have travelled on foot in a northern direc-
tion, and have been found at the distance of several miles from
home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the salute
is sure to be returned by the voyagers, who are only prevented
from alighting among them by the presence and habitations of man.
The gunners take one or two of these domesticated Geese with

CANADA GOOSE.

57

them to those parts of the marshes over which the wild ones are
accustomed to fly ; and concealing themselves within gunshot, wait
for a flight, which is no sooner perceived by the decoy Geese, than
they begin calling aloud, until the whole flock approaches so near
as to give the shooters an opportunity of discharging two, and
sometimes three, loaded muskets among it, by which great havoc
is made.

The Wild Goose, when in good order, weighs from ten to
twelve, and sometimes fourteen pounds. They are sold in the
Philadelphia markets at from seventy-five cents to one dollar and
twenty-five cents each ; and are estimated to yield half a pound of
feathers a piece, which produces twenty-five or thirty cents more.

The Canada Goose is now domesticated in numerous quar-
ters of the country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful,
and more sensible of approaching changes in the atmosphere than
the common Gray Goose. In England, France, and Germany,
they have also been long ago domesticated. Buffon, in his account
of this bird, observes, Avithin these few years many hundreds
inhabited the great canal at Versailles, where they bred familiarly
with the Swans ; they were oftener on the grassy margins than in
the water;’’ and adds, “ there is at present a great number of them
on the magnificent pools that decorate the charming gardens of
Chantilly.” Thus has America already added to the stock of do-
mestic fowls three species, the Turkey, the Muscovy Duck, and the
Canada Goose, superior to most in size, and inferior to none in use-
fulness ; for it is acknowledged by an English naturalist of good
observation, that this last species “ is as familiar, breeds as freely,
and is in every respect as valuable as the common Goose.”*

The strong disposition of the wounded Wild Geese to mi-
grate to the north in spring, has been already taken notice of.
Instances have occurred where, their wounds having healed, they

VOL. vin.

^ Bewick, vol. ii, p. 255.

P

58

CANADA GOOSE.

have actually succeeded in mounting into the higher regions of the
air, and joined a party passing to the north ; and, extraordinary
as it may appear, I am well assured by the testimony of several
respectable persons, who have been eye-witnesses to the fact, that
they have been also known to return again in the succeeding au-
tumn to their former habitation. These accounts are strongly
corroborated by a letter which I some time ago received from an
obliging correspondent at New York ; which I shall here give at
large, permitting him to tell his story in his own way, and con-
clude my history of this species.

“ Mr. Platt, a respectable farmer on Long-Island, being out
shooting in one of the bays which, in that part of the country,
abound with water-fowl, wounded a Wild Goose. Being wing-
tipped, and unable to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive.
It proved to be a female ; and turning it into his yard, with a flock
of tame Geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, and in a
little time its wounded wing entirely healed. In the following
spring, when the W^ild Geese migrate to the northward, a flock
passed over Mr. Platt’s barn yard ; and just at that moment their
leader happening to sound his bugle-note, our Goose, in whom its
new habits and enjoyments had not quite extinguished the love of
liberty, and remembering the well known sound, spread its wings,
mounted into the air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared.
In the succeeding autumn the Wild Geese (as was usual) returned
from the northward in great numbers, to pass the winter in our
bays and rivers. Mr. Platt happened to be standing in his yard
when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he
observed three Geese detach themselves from the rest, and after
wheeling round several times, alight in the middle of the yard.
Imagine his surprise and pleasure, when by certain well remem-
bered signs, he recognized in one of the three his long lost fugi-
tive. It was she indeed ! She had travelled many hundred miles
to the lakes ; had there hatched and reared her offspring ; and had

CANADA GOOSE.

59

now returned with her little family, to share with them the sweets
of civilized life.

“ The truth of the foregoing relation can be attested by many
respectable people, to whom Mr. Platt has related the circumstances
as above detailed. The birds were all living, and in his possession,
about a year ago ; and had shown no disposition whatever to leave
him.”

The length of this species is three feet, extent five feet two
inches ; the bill is black ; irides dark hazel ; upper half of the
neck black, marked on the chin, and lower part of the head, with
a large patch of white, its distinguishing character ; lower part of
the neck before white ; back and wing-coverts brown, each feather
tipt with whitish ; rump and tail black ; tail-coverts and vent
white ; primaries black, reaching to the extremity of the tail ;
sides pale ashy brown ; legs and feet blackish ash.

The male and female are exactly alike in plumage.

Mr. Reuben Haines of Germantown, in the county of Phila-
delphia, possesses a flock of Canada Geese, The original pair
were taken on board of a vessel on our coast, having been driven
to sea by a storm. The person into whose hands they came, find-
ing that they evinced no disposition to breed, gave them to Mr.
Haines, who owned them for one year without perceiving any symp-
toms of an increase. He was now informed that Wild Geese would
not breed unless they were provided with water to swim in ; hence
he constructed for them a convenient pond, which he was enabled
to effect by means of a rivulet of limpid water, running through
his grounds. In April, 1822, the goose laid six eggs, four of which,
in due time, produced as many goslings, and all were raised.

On the 15th of April, in the following year, the goose again
commenced laying; on the 24th she began to sit upon six eggs ;
and brought forth three young on the 24th of May, three of the
eggs being addled. Both male and female, from the commence-
ment of laying, were extremely watchful of their nest, which was

60

CANADA GOOSE.

situated in a retired spot, they never leaving it for a moment un-
guarded ; and during incubation the male sat in the absence of
his mate. On the approach of any one they betrayed strong symp-
toms of alarm ; and when the young were hatched, the gander
would advance, in a threatening attitude, toward intruders upon
their premises. They would seldom wander far from their favour-
ite stream, on the grassy margin of which they delighted to re-
pose and preen themselves, after the exercise of bathing, surveying,
with looks of affectionate complacency, their interesting progeny.
From some unknown cause the old goose has not laid the present
year, 1824 ; and none of the young, even of the first year, although
apparently full grown, have given evidence of an inclination to pro-
duce : hence it is probable that this species does not breed until
three years old.

61

AMERICAN TUFTED DUCK.

^JV^S RUFITORQUES.

[Plate LXVII.— Fig. 5, Male.']

Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. Ill, p. 385 ; plate 13, figure

6, the Trachea.

IT is remarkable that our author should not have observed
the difference between this species and the fidigula of Europe ; and
still more worthy of note that Mr. Temminck, whose powers of
discrimination are unusually acute, should also have been misled
by the opinions of others, and concluded, with Wilson, that the
Tufted Duck figured in our plate was of the same species as the
Tufted Duck of Europe. The only apology which we can make
for our author is, that he had never had an opportunity of examin-
ing a specimen of the fuligula ■, otherwise the specific differences
of the two would have been obvious at the first glance. The bdl
of the fuligula has not those white bands or markings which are
so conspicuous in our bird, its neck is also destitute of the chest-
nut collar ; the speculum of the former is pure white, that of the
latter is pale ash ; and, what is a still more striking characteristic,
its head is merely tufted, while the fidigida’s is ornamented with a

pendent crest, of two inches in length.

The credit of having been the first to publicly announce our
bird as a new species belongs to Mr. Charles Bonaparte, who, in
the publication quoted at the head of this article, has given a com-
parative description of the two birds, and named the subject of
this article rufitorqiies.

VOL. VIII.

Q

62

AMERICAN TUFTED DUCK.

The American Tufted Duck is said to be common on the
Ohio, and the Mississippi ; Messieurs Say and Peale procured it on
the Missoui’i; Lewis and Clarke shot it on the Columbia;* and the
Editor in East Florida. It is, properly speaking, a fresh water
Duck, although it is sometimes found on the coast. On the Dela-
ware we observe it in the spring and autumn ; and, if the weather
be moderate, we see it occasionally throughout the winter. With
us it is not a numerous species ; and is rather a solitary bird, sel-
dom more than four or five being found together. It is more com-
mon in the month of March than at any other time. It is a plump,
short-bodied Duck ; its flesh tender, and well tasted ; but in no re-
spects to be compared to that of the Canvass-back ; it is even in-
ferior to the Mallard.

The American Tufted Duck is seventeen inches long, and
twenty-seven inches in breadth ; the bill is broad, of a dull bluish
ash color, the base of the upper mandible marked with a stripe of
pure white, which extends along its edges, and then forms a wider
band across near the tip, which is of a deep black — this white
band changes after death to gray or bluish white ; irides rich
orange ; a spot of white on the chin ; head tufted, and, with the
upper part of the neck, black, with reflections of rich purple, pre-
dominating on the back part of the neck ; about the middle of the
neck there is an interrupted band of a rich deep glossy chestnut ;
throat, lower part of the neck, breast, back, scapulars, rump, and
tail-coverts, of a silky brownish black ; primaries and wing-coverts
brown ; tertials dark brown, with strong reflections of green ; se-
condaries pale ash, or bluish white, forming the speculum, some tipt
with brown and others with white ; back and scapulars powdered
with particles of dull white, not to be observed but on a near in-
spection, and presenting the appearance of dust ; lower part of the

* Hist, of the Exped. vol. II, p. 195, 8vo.

AMERICAN Ti:^TED DUCK.

63

breast, and whole belly, white, with a yellowish tinge; vent dusky;
sides under the wings, and flanks, beautifully marked with fine
zigzag lines of dusky ; tail dull brown, cuneiform, and composed
of fourteen feathers ; the primaries, wing-coverts, back and scapu-
lars, are glossed with green ; webs of the feet black. The color
of the legs and feet varies : those of the figure in the plate were
greenish ash ; those of the specimen above described were pale
yellow ochre, dashed with black ; and those of Mr. Bonaparte’s
specimen were bluish ash. The above description was taken from
a fine adult male, shot by the Editor on the 1st of April, 1814.

On the 8th of March, 1815, the Editor shot, from a flock,
consisting of five individuals, two males ; and an adult female in
full plumage.

Female : Length sixteen inches and a half ; bill darker than
that of the male, without the white at its base, above the nail with
a band of dull bluish white ; beneath the eyes a spot of white ;
chin and front part of the lores white ; throat spotted with dusky ;
cheeks and auriculars finely powdered with white ; neck without
the chestnut band ; head, neck, breast, upper parts of the back,
lower parts of the belly, and vent, a snufif-colored brown ; belly
whitish ; lower part of the back dusky ; the under tail-coverts pen-
ciled with fine zigzag lines ; neck rather thicker than that of the
male, but the head equally tufted. The wings, feet, legs, tail and
eves, resemble those parts of the male. The dust-like particles,
which are so remarkable upon the back and scapulars of the male,
are wanting in the female.

In young males the head and upper part of the neck are pur-
plish brown ; in some the chestnut band of the neck is obscure.

The stomachs of those specimens which I dissected were filled
with gravel and vegetable food. The trachea, according to the
observations of Mr. Bonaparte, resembles that of the fuligula.

This species is in no respects so shy and cunning as the Scaup
Duck ; and is more easily shot.

64

GOLDEN-EYE.

AJV^S CLANGULA.
[Plate LXVIL— Fig. 6, MaleJ]

Le Garroty Briss. VI, p, 416, 27, pi 37, Jig. 2. — Buff. IX, p. 222. PLEnl 802. — ArcU
Zool No, 486; Morillony Id, vol II, p, 300, F. — Br. Zool No, 276, 277. — Lath. Syn.
Ill, p. 535 ; Id. Sup, II, p, 355, No, 26. — Ind. Om. p, 867, No, 87 ; A, glaucion, Id. p,
868, No. 88. — Gmel. Syst. I, p. 523, No. 23 ; Id. p, 525, No, 26. — Temm. Man, d^Om,
p, 870. — Bewick, II, /j. 330. — Cuv. Rtg, An, I, p, 534. — Pe ale’s No, 2921;

female^ 2922.

THIS Duck is well known in Europe, and in various regions
of the United States, both along the seacoast, and about the lakes
and rivers of the interior. It associates in small parties, and may
easily be known by the vigorous whistling of its wings as it passes
through the air. It swims and dives well ; but seldom walks on
shore, and then in a waddling awkward manner. Feeding chiefly
on shell-fish, small fry, &c. their flesh is less esteemed than that
of the preceding. In the United States they are only winter visi-
tors, leaving us again in the month of April, being then on their
passage to the north to breed. They are said to build, like the
Wood Duck, in hollow trees.

The Golden-eye is nineteen inches long, and twenty-nine in
extent, and weighs on an average about two pounds ; the bill is
black, short, rising considerably up in the forehead ; the plumage
of the head, and part of the neck, is tumid, and of a dark green,
Avith violet reflections, marked near the corner of the mouth with
an oval spot of white ; the irides are golden yellow ; rest of the
neck, breast, and whole lower parts, white, except the flanks,
which are dusky ; back and wings black ; over the latter a broad

GOLDEN-EYE.

65

bed of white extends from the middle of the lesser coverts to the
extremity of the secondaries ; the exterior scapulars are also while ;
tail hoary brown ; rump and tail-coverts black ; legs and toes red-
dish orange ; webs very large, and of a dark purplish brown ; hind
toe, and exterior edge of the inner one, broadly finned ; sides of the
bill obliquely dentated ; tongue covered above with a fine thick
velvetty down of a whitish color.

The full-plumaged female is seventeen inches in length, and
twenty-seven inches in extent ; bill brown, orange near the tip ;
head and part of the neck brown, or very dai’k drab, bounded
below by a ring of white ; below that the neck is ash, tipt with
white ; rest of the lower parts white ; wings dusky, six of the se-
condaries, and their greater coverts, pure white, except the tips of
the last, which are touched with dusky spots ; rest of the wing-
coverts cinereous, mixed with whitish ; back and scapulars dusky,
tipt with brown ; feet dull orange ; across the vent a band of cine-
reous ; tongue covered with the same velvetty down as the male.

The young birds of the first season very much resemble the
females ; but may generally be distinguished by the white spot, or
at least its rudiments, which marks the corner of the mouth. Yet,
in some cases, even this is variable, both old and young male birds
occasionally wanting the spot.

From an examination of many individuals of this species, of
both sexes, I have very little doubt that the Morillon of Pennant
(Anas glaucion) is nothing more than the young male of the Gold-
en-eye.

The conformation of the trachea or windpipe, of the male of
this species, is singular ; nearly about its middle it swells out to
at least five times its common ■ diameter, the concentric hoops or
rings, of which this part is formed, falling obliquely into one an-
other when the windpipe is relaxed ; but when stretched, this part
swells out to its full size, the rings being then drawn apart ; this

expansion extends for about three inches ; three more below this

R

VOL. VIII.

66

GOLDEN-EYE.

it again forms itself into a hard cai'tilaginous shell, of an irregular
figure, and nearly as large as a walnut ; from the bottom of this
labyrinth, as it has been called, the trachea branches, ofi* to the
two lobes of the lungs ; that branch which goes to the left lobe
being three times the diameter of the right. The female has
nothing of all this. The intestines measure five feet in length, and
are large and thick.

I have examined many individuals of this species, of both
sexes, and in various stages of color, and can therefore affirm,
with certainty, that the foregoing descriptions are correct. Eu-
ropeans have differed greatly in their accounts of this bird, from
finding males in the same garb as the females ; and other full-
plumaged males destitute of the spot of white on the cheek ; but
all these individuals bear such evident marks of belonging to one
peculiar species, that no judicious naturalist, with all these varie-
ties before him, can long hesitate to pronounce them the same.

67

SHOVELLER.

CLYPEJJTA.

[Plate LXVIL— Fig. 7, Male.']

Gmel. Itp» 518, JVo, 19 ; A, Mexicam^ Id. p. 519, Ab. 81 ; A. rubenSi Id. No. 82. —
Lath. Ind, Om. p. 856, No, 60 ; p. 857, Ab. 61, Ab. 62. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 509, Ab. 55 ;
p. 511, No. 56; p. 512, No. 57. — Blue-wing Shoveller., Catesby, I, pi. 9Q, female. —
Arct. Zool No. Zool. No. 280, Ab. 281.— Z-e Souchet, Briss. VI, p. 329,/;/.

32, fig. 1 ; Le Souchet du Mexique, Id. p. 337 ; Le Canard Sauvage du Mexique, Id. p.
327, Ab. 5.— ie Souchet ou le Rouge, Buff. IX, p. 191. PI. Enl. 971 ; female, 972.—
Canard Souchet, Temm. Man. d^Orn. p, 842— Bewick, U, p. 310, 313.— Ze Souchet
commun, Cuv. R^g. An. l,p. 536.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2734 ; female, 2735.

IF we except the singularly formed bill, and its disproportion-
ate size, there are few Ducks more beautiful, or more elegantly-
marked than this. The excellence of its flesh, which is uniformly
juicy, tender, and well tasted, is another recommendation to which
it is equally entitled. It occasionally visits the seacoast ; but is
more commonly found on our lakes and rivers, particularly along
their muddy shores, where it spends great part of its time in
searching for small worms, and the larvae of insects, sifting the
watery mud through the long and finely set teeth of its curious
bill, which is large and admirably constructed for the purpose of
reeeiving a considerable quantity of matter, each mandible boi del-
ed with elose-set, pectinated rows, exactly resembling those of a
weaver’s reed, which fitting into each other form a kind of sieve,
capable of retaining very minute worms, seeds, or insects, which

constitute the principal food of the bird.

The Shoveller visits us only in the winter, and is not known
to breed in any part of the United States. It is a common bird
of Europe, and, according to M. Baillon, the correspondent of Buf-
fon, breeds yearly in the marshes in France. The female is said

68

SHOVELLER.

to make her nest on the ground, with withered grass, in the midst
of the largest tufts of rushes or coarse herbage, in the most inac-
cessible part of the slaky marsh, and lays ten or twelve pale rust
colored eggs ; the young, as soon as hatched, are conducted to the
water by the parent birds. They are said to be at first very shape-
less and ugly, for the bill is then as broad as the body, and seems
too great a weight for the little bird to carry. Their plumage does
not acquire its full colors until after the second moult.

The Blue-winged Shoveller is twenty inches long, and two
feet six inches in extent; the bill is brownish black, three inches
in length, greatly widened near the extremity, closely pectinated
on the sides, and furnished with a nail on the tip of each mandi-
ble; irides bright orange ; tongue large and fleshy ; the inside of
the upper, and outside of the lower, mandible are grooved so as to
receive distinctly the long separated reed-like teeth ; there is also
a gibbosity in the two mandibles, which do not meet at the sides,
and this vacuity is occupied by the sifters just mentioned; head
and upper half of the neck glossy, changeable green ; rest of the
neck and breast white, passing round and nearly meeting above ;
whole belly dark reddish chestnut; flanks a brownish yellow, pen-
ciled transversely Avith black, between which and the vent, which
is black, there is a band of white ; back blackish brown ; exterior
edges of the scapulars white ; lesser wing coverts, and some of the
tertials, a fine light sky blue; beauty spot on the wing a changea-
ble resplendent bronze green, bordered above by a band of Avhite,
and below with another of velvetty black ; rest of the wing dusky,
some of the tertials streaked down their middles Avith Avhite ; tail
dusky, pointed, broadly edged with Avhite ; legs and feet reddish
orange, hind toe not finned.

With the aboA^e another Avas shot, Avhich differed in having
the breast spotted Avith dusky, and the back Avith Avhite ; the green
plumage of the head intermixed Avith gray, and the belly Avith cii-

SHOVELLER.

69

cular touches of white : evidently a young male in its imperfect
plumage.

The female has the crown of a dusky brown ; rest of the
head and neck yellowish white, thickly spotted with dark brown ;
these spots on the breast become larger, and crescent-shaped ;
back and scapulars dark brown, edged and centred with yellow
ochre ; belly slightly rufous, mixed with white ; wing nearly as in
the male.

On dissection, the labyrinth in the windpipe of the male was
found to be small ; the trachea itself seven inches long ; the in-
testines nine feet nine inches in length, and about the thickness
of a crow quill.

The Shoveller is common in East Florida. It frequents the
fresh water ponds during the winter, and becomes very fat. Its
flesh is excellent.

VOL. VIII.

s

70

GOOSANDER.
MERGUS MERGAmER.
[Plate LXVIIL— Fig. 1, Male.']

Gmel. Systr I, p. 544, Ab. 2.*— Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 828, A'b. 1. Gen. Syn. Ill, p, 418 ; Id*
Sup. II, p. 336. — Bewick, II, p, 228, — UHarle., Briss. VI, p. 231, pi. 22; UHarle
cendrci ou le Bievre^ Id. p. 254, No. 7, pi. 25, young male? — Le Harle^ Buff. VIII, p.
267, pi. 23. PI. Enl. 951. — Arct. Zool. No. 465. — Br. ZooL No. 260, pi. 92, male and
female. — Grand Harle^'V'S.TAU. Man. d^ Orn. p. 881. — Le Harlevulgaire,C\j\. R^g. An. I,
p. 540. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Peale’s Ao. 2932.

TPIIS large and handsomely marked bird belongs to a genus
different from that of the Duck, on account of the particular form
and serratures of its bill. The genus is characterised as follows :
“ BUI toothed, slender, cylindrical, hooked at the point ; nostrils
small, oval, placed in the middle of the bill ; feet four-toed, the
outer toe longest.” Naturalists have denominated it Merganser.
In this country the birds composing this genus are generally known
by the name of Fishermen, or Fisher Ducks. The whole number
of known species amounts to only nine or ten, dispersed through
various quarters of the world ; of these, four species, of which the
present is the largest, are known to inhabit the United States.

From the common habit of these birds in feeding on fin-fish
and shell-fish, their flesh is held in little estimation, although com-
monly fat, both smelling and tasting strongly of fish ; but such are
the various peculiarities of tastes, that persons are not wanting
who pretend to consider them capital meat.

The Goosander, called by some the Water Pheasant, and by
others the Sheldrake, Fisherman, Diver, &c., is a winter inhabitant
of the seashores, fresh water lakes, and rivers of the United States.

GOOSANDER,

71

They usually associate in small parties of six or eight. In the
month of April they disappear, and return again early in Novem-
ber. Of their particular place and manner of breeding we have no
account. Mr. Pennant observes that they continue the whole year
in the Orknies ; and have been shot in the Hebrides or Western
Islands of Scotland in summer. They are also found in Iceland,
and Greenland, and are said to breed there ; some asserting that
they build on trees ; others that they make their nests among the
rocks.

The Goosander is a broad, long-bodied, and flat-backed bird.
It is a great diver, and remains under water for a considerable
time. It is very shy, and hard to be obtained, unless there is ice
in the river, at which time it may be approached by stratagem, the
shooter and his boat being clothed in white, so as to resemble float-
ing ice. It appears to live chiefly upon fin-fish, which its sharp-
toothed and hooked bill is admirably calculated for securing. It
rises from the water with considerable fluttering, its wings being
small and short ; but when in the air it flies with great swiftness.
It is a singular circumstance that those Goosanders which are seen
in the Delaware and Schuylkill, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, are
principally old males.

The male Goosander is twenty-six inches in length, and thirty-
seven inches in breadth; the bill to the angles of the mouth is three
inches long, nearly an inch thick at the base, strongly toothed on
both mandibles, the upper mandible with two corresponding rows
of fine teeth within, the lower divided to the nail, and con-
nected by a thin elastic membrane, which admits of consider-
able expansion to facilitate the passage of fish ; nostrils subo-
vate, broader on the hind part; the bill is black above and
below, its sides crimson ; the tongue is long, pointed, furnished
with a double row of papillae running along the middle, and has a
hairy border; irides golden; the frontlet, lores, area of the ejes,
and throat, jet black ; head crested, tumid, and of a beautiful

72

GOOSANDER.

glossy bottle-green color, extending nearly half way down the neck,
the remainder of which, with the exterior part of the scapulars, the
lesser coverts, the greater part of the secondaries, the tertials, and
lining of the wings, white, delicately tinged with cream color ; the
breast and whole lower parts are of a rich cream color ; the upper
part of the back, and the interior scapulars, a fine glossy black ; the
primaries, and exterior part of the secondaries, with their coverts,
are brownish black ; the lower part of nearly all the coverts of the
secondaries white, the upper part black, forming a bar across the
Aving ; the shoulder of the wing is brownish ash, the feathers tipt
with black ; the middle and lower parts of the back, and tail-co-
verts, ash, the plumage centred with brown ; tail brownish ash,
rounded, composed of eighteen feathers, and extends about three
inches beyond the wings ; the flanks are marked with waving, fine-
ly-dotted, lines of ash on a white ground ; tertials on the outer
vanes edged with black ; the legs and feet are of a rich orange ;
toes long, middle one somewhat the longest, claws flesh colored.
The whole plumage is of a silky softness, particularly that of the
head and neck, which feels like the most delicate velvet.

Naturalists represent the feet and legs of this species as of the
color of red sealing-wax. This is an error which arose from the
circumstance of their having seen their specimens some time after
they had been killed. When the bird is alive, these parts are of a
beautiful orange, which changes after death to the color they men-
tion.

The above description was taken from a fine full-plumaged
male, which was shot in the vicinity of Philadelphia in the month
of January. It was in good condition, and weighed three pounds
thirteen ounces avoirdupois. The young males, Avhich are gene-
rally much more numerous than the old ones, so exactly resemble
the females in their plumage, for at least the first, and part of the
second, year, as scarcely to be distinguished from them ; and, what
is somewhat singular, the crests of these, and of the females, are

GOOSANDER.

73

actually longer than those of the full-grown male, though thinner
towards its extremities. These circumstances have induced some
late ornithologists to consider them as two different species, the
young male, and the female, having been called the Dim-diver, By
this arrangement they have entirely deprived the Goosander of his
female ; for in the whole of my examinations and dissections of
the present species, I have never yet found the female in his dress.
What I consider as undoubtedly the true female of this species is
figured beside him. They were hoth shot in the month of April,
in the same creek, unaccompanied by any other, and, on examina-
tion, the sexual parts of each were strongly and prominently marked.
The windpipe of the female had nothing remarkable in it ; that of
the male had two very large expansions, which have been briefly
described by Willoughby, who says : “ It hath a large bony laby-
rinth on the windpipe, just above the divarications ; and the wind-
pipe hath besides two swellings out, one above another, each re-
sembling a powder puff."’ These labyrinths are the distinguishing
characters of the males ; and are always found even in young males
who have not yet thrown off the plumage of the female, as well as
in the old ones. If we admit these Dun-divers to be a distinct spe-
cies, we can find no difference between their pretended females
and those of the Goosander, only one kind of female of this sort
being known, and this is contrary to the usual analogy of the other
three species, viz, the Red-breasted Merganser, the Hooded, and the
Smew, all of whose females are well known, and bear the same
comparative resemblance in color to their respective males, the
length of crest excepted, as the female Goosander we have figured
bears to him.

Having thought thus much necessary on this disputed point,
I leave each to form his own opinion on the facts and reasoning
produced, and proceed to describe the female.

VOL, VIII.

T

74

FEMALE GOOSANDER.

[Plate LXVIIL— Fig. 2.]

Mergus castor^ Gmel. Syst, I, p. 545, etvar. — Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 829, Ab. 2, Dun Dwer,
Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 420, 421. — Bewick, II, p. 231. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Briss.
VI, p. 236. — Le Harle femelle^ Buff. VIII, p. 272. PL Enl. 953. — Peale’s Museum,
No. 2933.

THIS generally measures an inch or two shorter than the
male ; the length of the present specimen was twenty-five inches,
extent thirty-five inches ; bill crimson on the sides, black above ;
irides reddish ; crested head and part of the neck dark brown,
lightest on the sides of the neck, where it inclines to a sorrel
color ; chin and throat white ; the crest shoots out in long radiating
flexible stripes ; upper part of the body, tail and flanks, an ashy
slate, tinged with brown ; primaries black ; middle secondaries
white, forming a large speculum on the wing ; greater coverts
black, tipt for half an inch with white ; sides of the breast, from
the sorrel colored part of the neck downwards, very pale ash,
with broad semicircular touches of white ; belly and lower part
of the breast a fine yellowish cream color, a distinguishing trait
also in the male ; legs and feet rich orange.

It is truly astonishing with what pertinacity Montagu adheres
to the opinion that the Dun-diver is a species distinct from the
Goosander. Had this excellent ornithologist had the same oppor-
tunities for examining these birds that we have, he would never
have published an opinion, which, in this quarter of the globe,
would subject one, even from the vulgar, to the imputation of ig-

norance.

75

PINTAIL DUCK.

^JVAS ACUTJl.

[Plate LXVIII.— Fig. 3, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. l,p. S28, No. 28. — Ind. Orn. p. 864, No. 81. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 526, No. 72;

Id. Sup. II, p. 354, No. 25.— Temm. Man. d’Om. p. 838.— Cnv. Rig. An. I, p. 537.— Le
Canard 'a longue queue, Briss. VI, p. 369, 16, pi. 34, fig. 1, 2.-BnFF. IX, p. 199, pi.

13. PI. £«/. 954.— Bewick,II,/». 324.— ./irci. Zool. No. 500 — Pe ale’s Museum, No.

2806 ; female^ 2807.

THE Pintail, or as it is sometimes called, the Sprigtail, is a
common and well known duck in our markets ; much esteemed for
the excellence of its flesh ; and is generally in good order. It is
a shy and cautious bird ; feeds on the mud-flats, and shallow fresh
water marshes ; but rarely resides on the seacoast. It seldom
dives ; is very noisy, and has a kind of chattering note. When
wounded from a boat they will sometimes dive, and coming up
conceal themselves under the bow, moving round as the boat
moves. Are vigilant in giving the alarm on the approach of the
gunner, who often curses the watchfulness of the Sprigtail. Some
Ducks when aroused disperse in dilferent directions ; but the Sprig-
tails when alarmed cluster confusedly together as they mount, and
thereby afford the sportsman a fair opportunity of raking them with
advantage. They generally leave the Delaware about the middle
of April, on the way to their native regions the north, where
they are most numerous. They inhabit the whole northern parts
of Europe and Asia, and doubtless the corresponding latitudes of
America. Are said likewise to be found in Italy. Great flocks
of them are sometimes spread along the isles and shores of Seot-
land and Ireland, and on the interior lakes of both these countries.

76 PINTAIL DUCK.

On the marshy shores of some of the bays of Lake Ontario they
are often plenty in the months of October and November. I also
met with them at Louisville on the Ohio.

The Pintail Duck is twenty-six inches in length, and two feet
ten inches in extent ; the bill is a dusky lead color ; irides dark
hazel ; head and half of the neck pale brown, each side of the
latter marked with a band of purple violet, hind part of the upper
half of the neck black, bordered on each side by a stripe of white,
which spreads over the lower part of the neck before ; sides of the
breast, and upper part of the back, white, thickly and elegantly
marked with tranverse undulating lines of black, here and there
tinged with pale buff; throat, and middle of the belly, white tinged
with cream ; flanks finely penciled with waving lines ; vent white ;
under tail-coverts black; lesser wing-coverts brown ash, greater
the same, tipt with orange, below which is the speculum or beauty
spot of rich golden green, bordered below with a band of black,
and another of white; primaries dusky brown; tertials long, black,
edged with white, and tinged with rust ; rump and tail-coverts pale
ash, centred with dark brown ; tail greatly pointed, the two middle
tapering feathers being full five inches longer than the others and
black, the rest brown ash edged with white ; legs a pale lead color.

The female has the crown of a dark brown color ; neck of a
dull brownish white, thickly speckled with dark brown ; breast
and belly pale brownish white, interspersed with black ; back and
root of the neck above black, each feather elegantly waved with
broad lines of brownish white, these wavings become rufous on
the scapulars ; vent white, spotted with dark brown ; tail dark
brown spotted with white; the two middle tail feathers half an
inch longer than the others.

The Sprigtail is an elegantly formed, long-bodied Duck, the
neck longer and more slender than most others.

77

BLUE-WINGED TEAL.

^JVJJS DISCOBS.

[Plate LXVIIL— Fig. 4, Male.']

Gmel. Si/st.- 1, p. 535, JVo. 37.— Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 854, No. 55. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 502,
No. 50.—Jrct. Zool. No. SQZ.— JFhite-faced Teal, Catesby, I, pi. 100; Blue-wing'ed
Teal, Id. pi 99, female. — La sarcelle d'Amerlque, Buiss. VI, p. 452, No. 35 ; La sarcelle
dc Firginie, Id. p. 455, No. 36. — La sarcelle soucrouroit, Buff. IX, p. 279 ; La sarcelle
soucrourette. Id. p. 280. Sarcelle male de Cayenne, ditte le soucroitrou, PI Enl 966 ; Sar-
celle de Caijenne, Id. 403, female. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2846.

THE Blue-winged Teal is the first of its tribe that returns
to us ill the autumn, from its breeding place in the north. They
are usually seen early in September, along the shores of the Dela-
ware, where they sit on the mud close to the edge of the water,
so crowded together that the gunners often kill great numbers at
a single discharge. When a flock is discovered thus sitting and
sunning themselves, the experienced gunner runs his bateau
ashore, at some distance below or above them, and getting out,
pushes her before him over the slippery mud, concealing himself
all the while behind her ; by this method he can sometimes ap-
proach within twenty yards of the flock, among which he gene-
rally makes great slaughter. They fly rapidly ; and when they
alight drop down suddenly like the Snipe or Woodcock, among
the reeds, or on the mud. They feed chiefly on vegetable food,
and are eagerly fond of the seeds of the reeds or wild oats. Their
flesh is excellent; and after their residence for a short time among
the reeds, becomes very fat. As the first frosts come on, they
proceed to the south, being a delicate bird, very susceptible of
cold. They abound in the inundated rice fields in the southern

states, where vast numbers are taken in ti'aps placed on small dry

U

VOL. VIII.

78

BLUE-WINGED TEAL.

eminences that here and there rise above the water. These places
are strewed with rice ; and by the common contrivance called a
figure four, they arc caught alive in hollow traps. In the month
of April they pass through Pennsylvania for the north ; but make
little stay at that season. I have observed them numerous on the
Hudson opposite to the Katskill mountains. They rarely visit the
seashore.

This species measures about fourteen inches in length, and
twenty-two inches in extent; the bill is long in proportion, and
of a dark dusky slate ; the front and upper part of the head are
black ; from the eye to the chin is a large crescent of white, the
rest of the head, and half the neck, is of a dark slate, richly glossed
with green and violet, remainder of the neck and breast is black
or dusky, thickly marked with semicircles of brownish white, ele-
gantly intersecting each other ; belly pale brown, barred with
dusky, in narrow lines ; sides and vent the same tint, spotted with
oval marks of dusky ; flanks elegantly Avaved with large semicir-
cles of pale brown ; sides of the vent pure white ; under tail-co-
verts black ; back deep brownish black, each feather waved with
large semi-ovals of brownish white ; lesser wing-coverts a bright
light blue ; primaries dusky brown ; secondaries black ; speculum
or beauty spot rich green ; tertials edged with black or light blue,
and streaked down their middle with white ; the tail, which is
pointed, extends two inches beyond the wings ; legs and feet yel-
low, the latter very small ; the two erescents of Avhite before the
eyes meet on the throat.

The female differs in having the head and neck of a dull
dusky slate instead of the rich violet of the male, the hind-head
is also Avhitish. The wavings on the back, and lower parts, more
indistinct; wing nearly the same in both.

In East Florida this species is common ; and Lewis and Clarke
record it among the birds of the western coast of North America.

79

SNOW GOOSE.

JIJVAS HYPERBOREJl.
[Plate LXVIIL— Fig. 5, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. I, />. 504, jVb. 54. — Ind. Orn. p. 837, Ab. 14. Gen. Ill, />. 445. — Temm.
Man. d'Orn. p. 816. — UOye de Briss. VI, p. 288, 10. — White Brant^ Lawson’s

Carolina^ p. 157. — Arct. Zool. No. ^11. — Phil, Trans. 62, p. 413. — Cuv. R>g. An, lyp.
531. — Ve ALE^s Museumj No. 2635.

THIS bird is particularly deserving of the further investiga-
tion of naturalists ; for, if I do not greatly mistake, English wri-
ters have, from the various appearances which this species as-
sumes in its progress to perfect plumage, formed no less than
four different kinds, which they describe as so many distinct spe-
cies, viz. the Snow Goose, the While-fronted or Laughing Goose,
the Bean Goose, and the Blue-winged Goose; all of which, I have
little doubt, will hereafter be found to be nothing more than per-
fect and imperfect individuals, male and female, of the Snow
Goose, now before us.*

This species, called on the seacoast the Red Goose, arrives
in the river Delaware, from the north, early in November, some-
times in considerable flocks, and is extremely noisy, their notes
being shriller and more squeaking than those of the Canada, or
Common Wild Goose. On their first arrival they make but a
short stay, proceeding, as the depth of winter approaches, farther
to the south ; but from the middle of February until the breaking
up of the ice in March, they are frequently numerous along both
shores of the Delaware, about and below Reedy Island, particu-

* This conjecture of our author is partly erroneous. The Snow Goose and the Blue-winged
Goose are synonymous ; but the other two named are distinct species, the characters of which
are well defined by late ornithologists.

80

SNOW GOOSE.

larly near Old Duck Creek, in the state of Delaware. They feed
on the roots of the reeds there, tearing them up from the marshes
like hogs. Their flesh, like most others of their tribe that feed
on vegetables, is excellent.

The Snow Goose is two feet eight inches in length, and five
feet in extent ; the bill is three inches in length, remarkably thick
at the base, rises high in the forehead, but becomes small and com-
pressed at the extremity, where each mandible is furnished with a
whitish rounding nail, its color a purplish carmine ; the edges of
the two mandibles separate from each other in a singular manner
for their whole length, and this gibbosity is occupied by dentated
rows resembling teeth, these and the parts adjoining being of a
blackish color ; the whole plumage is of a snowy whiteness, with
the exception, first, of the fore part of the head all round as far as
the eyes, which is of a yellowish rust color intermixed with white,
and, secondly, the nine exterior quill feathers, which are black,
shafted with white, and white at the root, the coverts of these last,
and also the bastard wing, is sometimes of a pale ash color ; the
legs and feet of the same purplish carmine as the bill ; iris dai’k
hazel ; the tail is rounded, and consists of sixteen feathers ; that
and the wings, when shut, nearly of a length.

The bill of this bird is singularly curious ; the edges of the
upper and lower gibbosities have each twenty-three indentations,
or strong teeth, on each side ; and the inside or concavity of the
upper mandible has also seven lateral rows of strong projecting
teeth. The tongue, which is horny at the extremity, is armed on
each side with thirteen long and sharp bony teeth, placed like those
of a saw, with their points directed backwards ; turned up, and
viewed on its lower side, it looks very much like a human finger
with its nail.

The specimen from which the figure in the plate, and the
above description were taken, was shot in the Delaware, below Phi-
ladelphia, on the fifteenth of February; and on dissection proved

SNOW GOOSE.

81

to be a male. The windpipe had no labyrinth, but for an inch or
two before its divarication into the lungs, Avas inflexible, not exten-
sile like the rest, and rather wider in diameter. The gullet had
an expansion before entering the stomach ; which last was remark-
ably strong, the two great grinding muscles being nearly five inches
in diameter. The stomach was filled with fragments of the roots
of reeds, and fine sand. The intestines measured eight feet in
length, and were not remarkably thick. The liver was small. For
the young female of this species, see Plate LXIX, fig. 5.

Latham observes that this species is very numerous at Hud-
son’s bay ; that they visit Severn river in May, and stay a fort-
night, but go farther north to breed ; they return to Severn Fort
the beginning of September, and stay till the middle of October,
when they depart for the south, and are observed to be attended
by their young in flocks innumerable. They seem to occupy also
the western side of America, as they were seen at Aoonalashka’^
as well as at Kamtschatka.-f" White Brant, with black tips to their
wings, were also shot by captains Lewis and Clark’s exploring
party, near the mouth of the Columbia river, which were proba-
bly the same as the present species. § Mr. Pennant says, “ they
are taken by the Siberians in nets, under which they are decoyed
by a person covered with a white skin, and crawling on all-fours ;
Avhen others driving them, these stupid birds mistaking him for
their leader, follow him, when they are entangled in the nets, oi-
led into a kind of pound made for the purpose !” We might here
with propriety add — This wants confirmation.

Ellis’s Narr. f Hist. Kamtsch. § Gass’s Journal, p. 161.

VOL. VIII.

X

82

HOODED MERGANSER.

MERGUS CUCULLATUS.

[Plate LXIX.— Fig. 1, Male.']

Gmel. Syst, I, /). 544, No. 1. — Ind. Orn. p. 830, No. 5. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 426, No. 4, pL 101.

— UHarle liiipe de Virgink^ Briss. VI, p. 258, 8. — Lc Harle couronrie, Buff. VIII, p.

280. PL Enl. 935 ; 93Q>y fimale. — Pound-crested Duck, Edw. pi. 360. — Catesby, pi.

94, — Arct. Zool. Ab. 467. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2930; female, 2931.

THIS species on the seacoast is usually called the Hairy-head.
Tlicy are more common, however, along our lakes and fresh water
rivers than near the sea ; tracing up creeks, and visiting milhponds,
diving perpetually for their food. In the creeks and rivers of the
southern states they are very frequently seen during the winter.
Like the Bed-breasted they are migratory, the manners, food, and
places of resort of both being very much alike. ^

The Hooded Merganser is eighteen inches in length, and two
feet in extent ; bill blackish red, narrow, thickly toothed, and fur-
nished with a projecting nail at the extremity; the head is orna-
mented with a large circular crest, which the bird has the faculty
of raising or depressing at pleasure ; the fore part of this, as far
as the eye, is black, thence to the hind-head white, and elegantly
tipt with black ; it is composed of two separate rows of feathers,
radiating from each side of the head, and which may be easily di-
vided by the hand; irides golden; eye very small ; neck black,
which spreads to and over the back ; part of the lesser wing-co-
verts very pale ash, under which the greater coverts and seconda-
ries form four alternate bars of black and white ; tertials long,
black, and streaked down the middle with white ; the black on
the back curves handsomely round in two points on the breast,
Avhich, with the whole lower parts, is pure white ; sides under tlie

HOODED MERGANSER.

83

wings and flanks reddish brown, beautifully crossed with parallel
lines of black ; tail pointed, consisting of twenty feathers, of a
sooty brown ; legs and feet flesh colored ; claws large and stout.
The windpipe has a small labyrinth.

The female is ratheiTess, the crest smaller and of a light rust
or dull ferruginous color, entirely destitute of the white ; the up-
per half of the neck a dull drab, with semicircles of lighter ; the
white on the wings is the same as in the male ; but the tertials
are shorter and have less white ; the back is blackish brown ; the
rest of the plumage corresponds very nearly with the male.

This species is peculiar to America ; is said to arrive at Hud-
son’s Bay about the end of May ; builds close to the lakes ; the
nest is composed of grass lined with feathers from the breast ; is
said to lay six white eggs. The young are yellow, and fit to fly
in July.*

* Hutchins, as quoted by Latham.

84

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.

MERGUS SERRJITOR.

[Plate LXIX.— Fig. 2, Male.]

UHarle hupi'^ Bniss. VI, p. 237, 2, pi. 23; Vllarle hlanc et noir^ Id. p. 250, No. 4;
II Hark no'ir., Id. p. 251, S., young male. — Bufi'. VIII, p. 273, 277. PI. Enl. 207. —

Bewick, II, />. 235. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 884. — Red-breasted Goosander., Edw. pi.
95. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Gmel, Syst. I, /». 546, et var. — Lid. Orn. p. 829, No.
4. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 423, No. 3, et var. ; Id. Sup. II, p. 337, Ab. 2. — Rr. Zool. N‘o. 261./;/.
93, male and female. — Arct. Zool. No. 466. — Cuv. Reg. An. I, p. 540. — Peale’s Mu-
seum, No. 2936,

THIS is much more common in our fresh waters than either
of the preceding, and is frequently brought to the Philadelphia
market from the shores of the Delaware. It is an inhabitant of
both continents. In the United States it is generally migratory;
though a few are occasionally seen in autumn ; but none of their
nests have as yet come under my notice. They also frequent the
seashore, keeping within the bays and estuaries of rivers. They
swim low in the water, and, when wounded in the wing, very dex-
terously contrive to elude the sportsman or his dog, by diving and
coming up at a great distance, raising the bill only above water,
and dipping down again with the greatest silence. The young
males of a year old are often found in the plumage of the female ;
their food consists of small fry, and various kinds of shell-fish.

The Red-breasted Merganser is said by Pennant to breed on
Loch Mari in the county of Ross, in North Britain; and also in
the isle of Hay. Latham informs us that it inhabits most parts of
the north of Europe on the continent, and as high as Iceland ; also
in the Russian dominions, about the great rivers of Siberia, and the
lake Baikal. Is said to be frequent in Greenland, where it breeds
on the shores. The inhabitants often take it by darts thrown at

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.

85

it, especially in August, being then in moult. At Hudson’s bay,
according to Hutchins, they come in pairs about the beginning of
June, as soon as the ice breaks up, and build soon after their ar-
rival, chiefly on dry spots of ground in the islands ; lay from eight
to thirteen white eggs, the size of those of a duck ; the nest is made
of withered grass, and lined with the down of the breast. The
young are of a dirty brown like young goslins. In October they
all depart southward to the lakes, where they may have open water.

This species is twenty-two inches in length, and thirty-two in
extent; the bill is two inches and three quarters in length, of the
color of bright sealing wax, ridged above with dusky ; the nail
at the tip large, blackish, and overhanging ; both mandibles are
thickly serrated ; irides red ; head furnished with a long hairy
crest which is often pendent, but occasionally erected, as repre-
sented in the plate ; this, and part of the neck, is black glossed with
green; the neck under this for two or three inches is pure white;
ending in a broad space of reddish ochre, spotted with black, which
spreads over the lower part of the neck and sides of the breast ;
shoulders, back, and tertials, deep velvetty black, the first marked
with a number of singular roundisli spots of white; scapulars white;
wing-coverts mostly white, crossed by two narrow bands of black ;
primaries black, secondaries white, several of the latter edged
with black; lower part of the back, the rump and tail-coverts,
gray, speckled with black ; sides under the wings elegantly crossed
with numerous waving lines of black; belly and vent white ; legs
and feet red ; the tail dusky ash ; the black of the back passes up
the hind neck in a narrow band to the head.

The female is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty in ex-
tent; the crested head and part of the neck are of a dull sorrel
color; irides yellow; legs and bill red; upper parts dusky slate;
wings black, greater coverts largely tipt with white; secondaries
nearly all white; sides of the breast slightly dusky; whole lower
parts pure white; the tail is of a lighter slate than the back. The

Y

VOL. VIII.

86

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.

crest is much shorter than in the male; and sometimes there is a
slight tinge of ferruginous on the breast.

The windpipe of the male of this species is very curious, and
differs something from that of the Goosander. About two inches
from the mouth it swells out to four times its common diameter,
continuing of that size for about an inch and a half. This swell-
ing is capable of being shortened or extended; it then continues of
its first diameter for two inches or more, when it becomes flattish,
and almost transparent for other two inches; it then swells into a
bony labyrintli of more than two inches in length by one and a
half in width, over the hollow sides of which is spread a yellowish
skin, like parchment. The left side of this, fronting the back of
the bird, is a hard bone. The divarications come out very regu-
larly from this at the lower end, and enter the lungs.

The intention of Nature in this extraordinary structure is
probably to enable the bird to take down a supply of air to sup-
port respiration while diving; yet why should the female, who
takes the same submarine excursions as the male, be entirely des-
titute of this apparatus?

87

SCAUP DUCK.
J1JVJ3S MJIRILJI.
[Plate LXIX. — Fig, 3, Male.'\

Gmel. Syst, I, p. 509, No. 8. — Ind. Orn. p. 853, No. 54. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 500, No. 49 ; Id.
Sup. II, p. 351, No. 19. — Le petit Morillon raye., Briss. VI, p. 416, 26, A. — Arct. ZooL
No. 498. — Br. Zool, No. 275. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Bewick, II, /j. 304. — Temm.
Man. d’Orn. p. 865. — Le Millouinan^ Buff. IX, p. 221. PL Enl. 1002. — Cuv. R^g. An.
I, p. 535. — Anas franata^ Sparkman, Mus. Carls. Jas. II, No. female. — Peale’s

Museum^ No. 2668 ; female^ No. 2669.

THIS Duck is better known among us by the name of the
Blue-bilL On the waters of the Chesapeake it is called the Black-
head. It is an excellent diver; and according to Willughby feeds
on a certain small kind of shell-fish called Scaup, whence it has
derived its name. It is common both to our fresh water rivers and
seashores in winter. Those that frequent the latter are generally
much the fattest, on account of the greater abundance of food
along the coast. It is common throughout the winter on the Dela-
ware, particularly in those places where small snails, its favorite
shell-fish, abound; feeding also, like most of its tribe, by moonlight.
They generally leave us in the latter part of April, though I have
met with individuals as late as the middle of May, among the salt
marshes of New Jersey. Their flesh is not of the most delicate
kind, yet some persons esteem it. That of the young birds is ge-
nerally the tenderest and most palatable.

The length of the Blue-bill is nineteen inches, extent twenty-
nine inches ; bill broad, generally of a light blue, sometimes of a
dusky lead color; irides bright golden, pupil very small ; chin,
front, crown and lores, deep black; head tumid, covered with plu-

88

SCAUP DUCK.

mage of a dai k glossy green, extending half way down the neck ;
rest of the neck and breast black, spreading round to the back ;
back and scapulars white, thickly crossed with waving lines of
black ; lesser coverts dusky, powdered with veins of whitish ; outer
primaries, and tertials, brownish black, the latter with a greenish
gloss ; inner primaries and secondaries white, tipt with black, form-
ing the speculum ; rump and tail-coverts black ; tail short, rounded,
and of a dusky brown ; belly white, crossed near the vent with
waving lines of ash ; vent black ; legs and feet dark slate. The
crown of the adult male is sometimes of a changeable purple, or
rather it appears either black or purple, according to its position
with respect to the rays of light.

Such is the color of the bird in its perfect state. Young birds
^•ary considerably, some having the head black mixed with gray
and purple; others the back dusky with little or no white, and that
irregularly dispersed.

The female is less than the male, and has the front and lores
white ; head and half of the neck blackish brown, in some speci-
mens of a chestnut brown, particularly young females ; breast,
spreading round to the back, a dark sooty brown, broadly skirted
with whitish; back and scapulars black, thinly sprinkled with
grains of white, in young females umber brown ; vent whitish ;
wings the same as in the male. Weight, when in good condition,
upwards of two pounds and a quarter.

The M'indpipe of the male of this species is of lai*ge diame-
ter ; the labyrinth similar to some others, though not of the largest
kind ; it has something of the shape of a single cockle-shell ; its
open side or circular rim covered with a thin transparent skin.
Just before the windpipe enters this, it lessens its diameter at least
two thirds, and assumes a flattish form.

The Scaup Duck is well known in England. It inhabits Ice-
land and the more northern parts of the continent of Europe, Lap-
land, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. It is also common on the

SCAUP DUCK.

89

northern shores of Siberia. Is very frequent on the river Ob.
Breeds in the north, and migrates southward in winter. It in-
habits America as high as Hudson’s bay, and retires from this
last place in October.*

Pennant and Latham state that the male weighs a pound and
a half ; and the female two ounces more. This is undoubtedly an
error, the female being less than the male, and the latter being ge-
nerally the fattest. Montagu says that the species weighs sometimes
as much as thirty-five ounces, which statement comes nearer the truth
than that of the foregoing. On the 8th of April, of the present
year, (1824,) the Editor shot, on the Delaware, an adult male which
weighed two pounds and three quarters. He has frequently shot
them of two pounds and a half ; and on the Chesapeake, and on
the coast, they are still heavier.

In the Delaware there are several favorite feeding grounds of
the Blue-bill along the Jersey shore, from Burlington to Mantua
creek ; but the most noted spot appears to be the cove which ex-
tends from Timber creek to Eagle Point, and known by the name
of Ladd’s cove. Thither the Blue-bills repair in the autumn, and
never quit it until they depart in the spring for the purpose of
breeding, except when driven away, in the winter, by the ice. It
is no uncommon circumstance to see many hundreds of these birds
at once, constantly diving for food ; but so shy are they, that even
with the aid of a very small, and well-constructed skiff, cautiously
paddled, it is difficult to appi'oach them within gunshot. So very
sagacious are they, that they appear to know the precise distance
wherein they are safe ; and, after the shooter has advanced within
this point, they then begin to spread their lines in such a manner
that, in a flock of a hundred, not more than three or four can be
selected in a group at any one view. They swim low in the water ;
are strong feathered ; and are not easily killed. When slightly

^ Latham.

VOL. VIII.

Z

90

SCAUP DUCK.

wounded, and unable to fly, it is almost hopeless to follow them, in
consequence of their great skill in diving. Their wings being
short they either cannot rise with the wind, when it blows fieshly,
or they are unwilling to do so, for they are invariably seen to rise
against the wind. In a calm they get up with considerable flutter-
ing.

The Blue-bills when disturbed by the fishermen along the Jer-
sey shore, in the spring, resort to other feeding places ; and they
are frequently observed a short distance below the Philadelphia
Navy-yard, particularly at the time when their favorite snail-shells
begin to crawl up the muddy shore for the purpose of breeding.
Though often seen feeding in places where they can reach the bot-
tom with their bills, yet they seldom venture on the shore, the la-
bor of walking appearing repugnant to their inclinations. W^hen
wounded they will never take to the land if they can possibly
avoid it ; and when compelled to walk they waddle along in the
awkward manner of those birds whose legs, placed far behind, do
not admit of a free and graceful progression.

91

AMERICAN WIDGEON.

AJVJIS JIMERICJINJI.

[Plate LXIX.— Fig. 4, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 526, No. 97. — Ind. Om. p. 861, No. 74. Ge>i. Syn. Ill, p. 520, No. 65. —
Le Canard Jensen, PI. Enl. 955. — Burr. IX, p. 174. — Arct. Zool. No. 502.— Peale’s
Museum, No. 2798 ; female, 2799.

THIS is a handsomely marked and sprightly species, very
common in winter along our whole coast, from Florida to Rhode
Island ; but most abundant in Carolina, where it frequents the rice
plantations. In Martinico great flocks take short flights from one
rice field to another during the rainy season, and ai'e much com-
plained of by the planters. The Widgeon is the constant atten-
dant of the celebrated Canvass-back Duck, so abundant in various
parts of the Chesapeake bay, by the aid of whose labor he has
ingenuity enough to contrive to make a good subsistence. The
Widgeon is extremely fond of the tender roots of that particular
species of aquatic plant on which the Canvass-back feeds, and for
which that Duck is in the constant habit of diving. The Wid-
geon, who never dives, watches the moment of the Canvass-back’s
rising, and before he is aware, snatches the delicious morsel from
his mouth, and makes off. On this account the Canvass-backs and
Widgeons, or, as they are called round the bay. Bald-pates, live in
a state of perpetual contention. The only chance the latter have
is to retreat, and make their approaches at convenient opportuni-
ties. They are said to be in great plenty at St. Domingo and Cay-
enne, where they are called Vingeon, or Gingeon. Are said some-
times to perch on trees. Feed in company, and have a sentinel on
the watch, like some other birds. They feed little during the day ;
but in the evenings come out from their hiding places, and are then

92

AMERICAN WIDGEON.

easily traced by their particular whistle or whew whew. This soft
note or whistle is frequently imitated with success, to entice them
within gunshot. Are common in the winter months along the bays
of Egg-Harbor and Cape May, and also those of the Delaware.
They leave these places in April, and appear upon the coasts of
Hudson’s bay in May, as soon as the thaws come on, chiefly in
pairs ; lay there only from six to eight eggs ; and feed on flies and
worms in the swamps ; depart in flocks in autumn.

These birds are frequently brought to the markets of Phila-
delphia and Baltimore, and generally bring a good price, their flesh
being excellent. They are of a lively frolicksome disposition, and
with proper attention might easily be domesticated. When fat the

males weigh upwards of two pounds.

The Widgeon or Bald-pate measures twenty-two inches in
length, and thirty inches in extent ; the bill is of a slate color, the
nail black ; the front and crown cream colored, sometimes nearly
white, the feathers inflated ; from the eye backwards to the mid-
dle of the neck behind, extends a band of deep glossy green gold
and purple ; throat, chin, and sides of the neck before, as far as
the green extends, dull yellowish white, thickly speckled with
black ; breast and hind part of the neck hoary bay, running in
under the wings, where it is crossed with fine waving lines of
black ; whole belly white ; vent black ; back and scapulars black,
thickly and beautifully crossed with undulating lines of vinous
bay ; lower part of the back more dusky ; tail-coverts long, point-
ed, whitish, crossed as the back ; tail pointed, brownish ash, the
two middle feathers an inch longer than the rest, and tapering ;
shoulder of the wing brownish ash, wing-coverts immediately be-
low white, forming a large spot ; primaries brownish ash, middle
secondaries black glossed with green, forming the speculum ; ter-
tials black edged with white, between which and the beauty spot
several of the secondaries are white.

* Hutchins.

AMERICAN WIDGEON.

93

The female has the whole head and neck yellowish white,
thickly speckled with black ; very little rufous on the breast ; the
back is dark brown. The young males, as usual, very much like
the females during the first season, and do not receive their full
plumage until the second year. They are also subject to a regular
change every spring and autumn.

A few of these birds breed annually in the marshes in the
neighborhood of Duck creek, in the state of Delaware. An ac-
quaintance of the Editor’s brought him thence, in the month of
June, an egg, which had been taken from a nest situated in a cluster
of alders ; it was very much of the shape of the common Duck’s
egg ; the color a dirty white ; length two inches and a quarter,
breadth one inch and five eighths. The nest contained eleven eggs.

This species is seen on the Delaware as late as the first week
of May. On the thirtieth of April last, the Editor observed a
large flock of them, accompanied by a few Mallards and Pintails,
feeding upon the mud-flats, at the lower end of League Island,
below Philadelphia. In the fresh water ponds, situated in the
neighborhood of the river St. John, in East Florida, they find an
abundance of food during the winter; and they become excessively
fat. It is needless to add that they are excellent eating.

VOL. vui.

2 A

94

YOUNG FEMALE SNOW GOOSE.

JINM mPERBOREA.

[Plate LXIX.— Fig. 5.]

Anas carulescens, Gmel. Syst, I, p. 513, No, 12. — Ind. Orn. p. 836, No, 13. Blue-winged
Goose^ Gen. Syn. III,/). 469, No, 28 ; Id, Sup. II, p, 346, No, 8. — Arct, Zool, No. 474. —
Edwards,/)/. 152. — UOye sauvage de la Baye de Hudson^ Briss. VI, p, 275, No. 5. —
VOie des Esquimaux^ Buff. IX, p, 80. — Peale’s Museum^ No, 2636.

THE full-pluinaged perfect male bird of this species has al-
ready been figured in the preceding plate, and I now hazard a
conjecture, founded on the best examination I could make of the
young bird here figured, comparing it with the descriptions of the
difierent accounts above referred to, that the whole of them have
been taken from the various individuals of the present, in a greater
or lesser degree of approach to its true and perfect colors.*

These birds pass along our coasts, and settle in our rivers,
every autumn; among thirty or forty there are seldom more than
six or eight pure white, or old birds. The rest vary so much that
no two are exactly alike ; yet all bear the most evident marks in
the particular structure of their bills, &c. of being the same iden-
tical species. A gradual change so great, as from a bird of this
color to one of pure white, must necessarily produce a number of
varieties, or differences, in the appearance of the plumage ; but the
form of the bill and legs I'emain the same ; and any peculiarity in
either is the surest mean we have to detect a species under all its
various appearances. It is therefore to be regretted, that the au-
thors above referred to in the synonymes, have paid so little atten-
tion to the singular conformation of the bill ; for even in their

* See note to Snow Goose, p. 79.

YOUNG FEMALE SNOW GOOSE.

95

description of the Snow Goose, neither that nor the internal pecii-
liarities, are at all mentioned.

The length of the bird represented in our plate was twenty-
eight inches, extent four feet eight inches ; bill gibbous at the
sides both above and below, exposing the teeth of the upper and
lower mandibles, and furnished with a nail at the lip on both,
the whole being of a light reddish purple or pale lake, except
the gibbosity, which is black, and the two nails, which are of a
pale light blue ; nostril pervious, an oblong slit, placed nearly in
the middle of the upper mandible ; irides dark brown ; whole head,
and half of the neck, white ; rest of the neck and breast, as well as
upper part of the back, of a purplish brown, darkest where it joins
the white, all the feathers being finely tipt with pale brown ; whole
wing-coverts very pale ash, or light lead color ; primaries and se-
condaries black ; tertials long, tapering, centred with black, edged
with light blue, and usually fall over the wing ; scapulars cinere-
ous brown ; lower parts of the back and rump of the same light
ash as the wing-coverts ; tail rounded, blackish, consisting of six-
teen feathers edged and tipt broadly with white ; tail-coverts white;
belly and vent whitish, intermixed with cinereous ; feet and legs of
the same lake color as the bill.

This specimen was a female; the tongue was thick and fleshy,
armed on each side with thirteen strong bony teeth, exactly simi-
lar in appearance, as well as in number, to those on the tongue of
the male Snow Goose ; the inner concavity of the upper mandible
was also studded with rows of teeth. The stomach was extremely
muscular, filled with some vegetable matter, and clear gravel.

With this another was shot, differing considerably in its mark-
ings, having little or no white on the head, and being smaller; its
general color dark brown intermixed with pale ash, and darker
below, but evidently of the same species with this.

96

PIED DUCK.

AJVJIS LJIBRJIDOE^.

[Plate LXIX.— Fig. 6, Male.']

Gmel. Syst, I, /). 537, No. 110. — Ind. Om. p. 859, No. 67. Gen, Syn. Ill, />. 497, N'o, 46.
— Arct. Zool. No. 488. — Peale’s Museum.^ No, 2858 ; female., No. 2859.

THIS is rather a scarce species on our coasts, and is never
met with on fresh water lakes or rivers. It is called by some gun-
ners the Sand-shoal Duck, from its habit of frequenting sand-bars.
Its principal food appears to be shell-fish, which it procures by
diving. The flesh is dry, and partakes considerably of the nature
of its food. It is only seen here during winter; most commonly
early in the month of March a few are observed in our market.
Of their particular manners, place, or mode of breeding, nothing
more is known, Latham observes that a pair in the possession of
Sir Joseph Banks wei’e brought from Labrador. Having myself
had frequent opportunities of examining both sexes of these birds,
I find that, like most others, they are subject when young to a
progressive change of color. The full-plumaged male is as fol-
lows : length twenty inches, extent twenty-nine inches ; the base
of the bill, and edges of both mandibles for two thirds of their
length, are of a pale orange color, the rest black, towards the ex-
tremity it widens a little in the manner of the Shovellers, the sides
there having the singularity of being only a soft, loose, pendulous
skin ; irides dark hazel ; head, and half of the neck, white, marked
along the crown to the hind-head with a stripe of black ; the plu-
mage of the cheeks is of a peculiar bristly nature at the points,
and round the neck passes a collar of black, which spreads over
the back, rump, and tail-coverts ; below this color the upper part
of the breast is white, extending itself over the whole scapulars.

PIED DUCK.

97

wing-coverts, and secondaries ; the primaries, lower part of the
breast, whole belly, and vent, are black; tail pointed, and of a
blackish hoary color; the fore part of the legs, and ridges of the
toes, pale whitish ash ; hind part the same, bespattered with black-
ish, webs black ; the edges of both mandibles are largely pecti-
nated. In young birds, the whole of the white plumage is gene-
rally strongly tinged with a yellowish cream color; in old males
these parts are pure white, with the exception sometimes of the
bristly pointed plumage of the cheeks, which retains its cream tint
the longest, and, with the skinny part of the bill, forms two strong
peculiarities of this species.

The female measures nineteen inches in length, and twenty-
seven in extent ; bill exactly as in the male ; sides of the front
white ; head, chin and neck, ashy gray ; upper parts of the back
and wings brownish slate; secondaries white; tertials hoary ; the
white secondaries form a spot on the wing, bounded by the black
primaries, and four hoary tertials edged with black ; whole lower
parts a dull ash skirted with brownish white, or clay color; legs
and feet as in the male ; the bill in both is marked from the nos-
strils backwards by a singular heart-shaped outline.

The windpipe of the male measures ten inches in length, and
has four enlargements, viz* one immediately below the mouth, and
another at the interval of an inch ; it then bends largely down to
the breast bone, to which it adheres by two strong muscles, and
has at that place a third expansion ; it then becomes flattened,
and before it separates into the lungs, has a fourth enlargement
much greater than any of the former, which is bony, and round,
puffing out from the left side. The intestines measure six feet ;
the liver is remarkably large.

2 B

VOL. viir.

98

LONG-TAILED DUCK.

AjYAS GLJICMLIS.

[Plate LXX.— Fig. 1, Male.]

Gmel. Si/st. I, /». 529, A"©. 30; A. hyemalh^ Id. No, 29; Mergus furcifer^ Id. p, 548, No.
7. — Ind. Orn. p. 864, A'b. 82, et var, ; Mergus furcifer^ Id, p, 832, No. 8. Gen. Syn. Ill,
p. 528, No. 73; Id. p. 529, young male,, called the female; Id. p. 531, var. A; Forked
Merganser, Id. Sup. II, p, 339, No, 5. — Le Canard a longue queue d''Islande, Bniss. VI,
p. 379 ; Le Canard a longue queue de Terre-Neuve, Id. p. 382 ; La Sarcelle de Ferroe, Id.
p. 466, pi. A0,fg. 2.— Buff. IX,/».202; Id. 278. PI. Enl. 1008, old male ; 999, ymr-
Img. — Edwards, pi. 280, old male ; pi. 156, young male. — Br. Zool. No. 283. Arct. ZooL
No. 501. — Bewick, II, p. 327. — Cuv. Big. An. I, p. 533. — Canard de Miclon, Temm.
Man, d'Orn, p, 860. — Montagu, Orn. Die. Sup. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2810.

THIS Duck is very generally known along the shores of the
Chesapeake bay by the name of South Southerly, from the singu-
larity of its ciy, something imitative of the sound of these words,
and also, that when very clamorous they are supposed to betoken
a southerly wind ; on the coast of New Jersey they are usually
called Old Wives. They are chiefly salt water Ducks, and seldom
ramble far from the sea. They inhabit our bays and coasts dur-
ing the winter only ; are rarely found in the marshes, but keep in
the channel, diving for small shell-fish, which are their principal
food. In passing to and from the bays, sometimes in vast flocks,
particularly towards evening, their loud and confused noise may
be heard in calm weather at the distance of several miles. They
fly very swiftly, take short excursions, and are lively restless birds.
Their native regions are in the north, where great numbers of them
remain during the whole year ; part only of the vast family migra-
ting south to avoid the severest rigors of that climate. They are
common to the whole northern hemisphere. In the Orkneys they
are met with in considerable flocks, from October to April ) fre-

LONG-TAILED DUCK.

99

qiient in Sweden, Lapland, and Russia ; are often found about St.
Petersburgh, and also in Kamtschatka. Are said to breed at Hud-
son’s bay, making their nest among the grass near the sea, like
the Eider Duck, and about the middle of June, lay from ten to
fourteen bluish white eggs, the size of those of a pullet. When
the young are hatched the mother carries them to the water in her
bill. The nest is lined with the down of her breast, which is ac-
counted equally valuable with that of the Eider Duck, were it to
be had in the same quantity.* They are hardy birds, and excel-
lent divers. Are not very common in England, coming there only
in very severe winters ; and then but in small straggling parties ;
yet are found on the coast of America as far south as Charleston
in Carolina, during the winter. Their flesh is held in no great es-
timation, having a fishy taste. The down and plumage, particular-
ly on the breast and lower parts of the body, are very abundant,
and appear to be of the best quality.

The length of this species is twenty-two inches, extent thirty
inches ; bill black, crossed near the extremity by a band of orange ;
tongue downy ; iris dark red; cheeks and frontlet dull dusky drab,
passing over the eye, and joining a large patch of black on the
side of the neck, which ends in dark brown ; throat and rest of the
neck white ; crown tufted, and of a pale cream color ; lower part
of the neck, breast, back, and wings, black ; scapulars and terlials
pale bluish white, long and pointed, and falling gracefully over
the wings ; the white of the lower part of the neck spreads over
the back an inch or two ; the white of the belly spreads over the
sides, and nearly meets at the rump ; secondaries chestnut, form-
ing a bar across the wing ; primaries, rump, and tail-coverts, black ;
the tail consists of fourteen feathers, all remarkably pointed, the
two middle ones nearly four inches longer than the others, these,
with the two adjoining ones, are black, the rest white ; legs and feet
dusky slate.

^ Latham.

100

LONG.TAILED DUCK.

On dissection, the intestines were found to measure five feet
six inches. The windpipe was very curiously formed; besides the
labyrinth, which is nearly as large as the end of one’s thumb, it has
an expansion immediately above that, of double its usual diame-
ter, which continues for an inch and a half ; this is flattened on
the side next the breast, with an oblong window-like vacancy in
it, crossed with five narrow bars, and covered with a thin transpa-
rent skin, like the panes of a window; another thin skin of the
same kind is spread over the external side of the labyrinth, which
is partly of a circular form. This singular conformation is, as
usual, peculiar to the male, the female having the windpipe of
nearly a uniform thickness throughout. She differs also so much
in tlie colors and markings of her plumage as to render a figure
of her in the same plate necessary ; for a description of which see
the following article.

We are told in the History of Cook’s last voyage that this
species is common at Kamtschatka ; and that it “ is called by the
natives Jl'an~gitche^ a word intended to express its cry, which is
not less singular than agreeable, consisting of three distinct notes,
rising at equal intervals above each other.”* Latham says that it is
called at Hudson’s bay Ha-ha-way >

^ Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, vol. HI, p. 346, 4to.

101

FEMALE LONG-TAILED DUCK.

[Plate LXX.— Fig. 2.]

Peale’s Museum, No* 2811.

THE female is distinguished from the male by wanting the
lengthened tertials, and the two long pointed feathers of the tail ;
and also by her size, and the rest of her plumage, which is as fol-
lows : length sixteen inches, extent twenty-eight inches ; bill dusky;
middle of the crown, and spot on the side of the neck, blackish ; a
narrow dusky line runs along the throat for two inches ; rest of the
head, and upper half of the neck, white, lower half pale vinaceous
bay, blended with white ; all the rest of the lower parts of the body
pure white ; back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, bright ferru-
ginous, centred with black, and interspersed with whitish ; shoul-
ders of the wing, and quills, black ; lower part of the back the
same, tinged with brown ; tail pale brown ash, inner vanes of all
but the two middle feathers white ; legs and feet dusky slate. The
legs are placed far behind, which circumstance points out the spe-
cies to be great divers. In some females the upper parts are less

Some writers suppose the singular voice, or call, of this spe-
cies, to be occasioned by the remarkable construction of its wind-
pipe ; but the fact, that the females are uniformly the most noisy,
and yet are entirely destitute of the singularities of this conforma-
tion, overthrows the probability of this supposition.

2 C

VOL. VUI.

102

SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK.

AJVAS SFOJVS^.

[Plate LXX. — Fig. 3, Male.']

Gmel. l,p. 539, M. 43.— /«(/. Orn. p. 871, JYo. 97. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 546, JVo. 85

Le Canard d^Ete, Briss. VI, p. 351, 11, pi. Jig. 2. — Le beau Canard huppe, Buff.
IX, p. 245. PI. Enl. 980 ; female, 981. — Summer Duck, Catesby, I, pi. 97. — Edw. pL
101. — Arct. Zool. No. 495. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2872; female, 2873.

THIS most beautiful of all our Ducks, has probably no su-
perior among its whole tribe for richness and variety of colors.
It is called the Wood Duck, from the circumstance of its breeding
in hollow trees ; and the Summer Duck, from remaining with us
chiefly during the summer. It is familiarly known in every quar-
ter of the United States, from Florida to Lake Ontario, in the
neighborhood of which latter place I myself met with it in Octo-
ber. It rarely visits the seashore, or salt marshes ; its favorite
haunts being the solitary deep and muddy creeks, ponds, and mill-
dams of the interior, making its nest frequently in old hollow trees
that overhang the water.

The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and
many of the West India Islands. During the whole of our winters
they ai'e occasionally seen in the states south of the Potomac.
On the tenth of January I met with two on a creek near Peters-
burgh in Virginia. In the more northern districts, however, they
are migratory. In Pennsylvania the female usually begins to lay
late in April or early in May. Instances have been known where
the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a fork of the
branches ; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree is select-
ed for this purpose. On the eighteenth of May I visited a tree
containing the nest of a Summer Duck, on the banks of Tuckahoe

SUMMER DUCK.

103

river. New Jersey. It was an old grotesque White Oak, whose
top had been torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the
bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hollow and bro-
ken top, and about six feet down, on the soft decayed wood, lay
thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down, doubtless taken from the
breast of the bird. These eggs were of an exact oval shape, less
than those of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, and of
the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resembling old
polished ivory. The egg measured two inches and an eighth by
one inch and a half. On breaking one of them, the young bird
was found to be nearly hatched, but dead, as neither of the parents
had been observed about the tree during the three or four days
preceding ; and were conjectured to have been shot.

This tree had been occupied, probably by the same pair, for
four successive years, in breeding time; the person who gave me
the information, and whose house was within twenty or thirty yards
of the tree, said that he had seen the female, the spring preceding,
carry down thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes.
She caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the neck, and
landed them safely at the foot of the tree, whence she afterwards
led them to the water. Under this same tree, at the time I visit-
ed it, a large sloop lay on the stocks, nearly finished ; the deck was
not more than twelve feet distant from the nest, yet notwithstand-
ing the presence and noise of the workmen, the Ducks would not
abandon their old breeding place, but continued to pass out and
in as if no person had been near. The male usually perched on
an adjoining limb, and kept watch while the female was laying ;
and also often while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a
hollow space at the root of the same tree, to lay and hatch her
young in.

The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more than three
or four individuals together, and most commonly in pairs, or singly.
The common note of the Drake is peet, peet; but, when standing

104

SUMMER DUCK.

centinel, he sees danger, he makes a noise not unlike the crowing
of a young cock, oe eek ! oe eek ! Their food consists principally
of acorns, seeds of the wild oats, and insects. Their flesh is in-
ferior to that of the Blue-winged Teal. They are frequent in the
markets of Philadelphia.

Among other gaudy feathers with which the Indians ornament
the Calumet or pipe of Peace, the skin of the head and neck of
the Summer Duck is frequently seen covering the stem.

This beautiful bird has often been tamed, and soon becomes
so familiar as to permit one to stroke its back with the hand. I
have seen individuals so tamed in various parts of the Union.
Captain Boyer, Collector of the port of Havre-de-Graee, informed
me that about forty years ago, a Mr. Nathan Nicols, who lived on
the west side of Gunpowder Creek, had a whole yard swarming
with Summer Ducks, which he had tamed and completely domes-
ticated, so that they bred and were as familiar as any other tame
fowls ; that he (Capt. Boyer) himself saw them in that state, but
did not know what became of them. Latham says that they are
often kept in European menageries, and will breed there.*

The Wood Duck is nineteeen inches in length, and two feet
four inches in extent ; bill red, mai’gined with black ; a spot of
black lies between the nostrils, reaching nearly to the tip, which
is also of the same color, and furnished with a large hooked nail ;
eye very large, iris orange red ; front, crown, and pendent crest, rich
glossy bronze green ending in violet, elegantly marked with a line of
pure white running from the upper mandible over the eye, and
with another band of white proceeding from behind the eye, both
mingling their long pendent plumes with the green and violet
ones, producing a rich effect ; cheeks and sides of the upper neck
violet ; chin, throat, and collar round the neck, pure white, curv-
ing up, in the form of a crescent, nearly to the posterior part of

^ Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 547.

SUMMER DUCK.

105

the eye ; the white collar is bounded below with black ; breast
dark violet brown, marked on the fore part with minute triangu-
lar spots of white, increasing in size until they spread into the
white of the belly; each side of the breast is bounded by a large
crescent of white, and that again by a broader one of deep black ;
sides under the wings thickly and beautifully marked with fine
undulating parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish drab ;
the flanks are ornamented with broad alternate semicircular bands
of black and white ; sides of the vent rich light violet ; tail-coverts
long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which they descend,
and of a deep black glossed with green ; back dusky bronze, re-
flecting green ; scapulars black ; tail tapering, dark glossy green
above, below dusky ; primaries dusky, silvery hoary without, tipt
with violet blue ; secondaries greenish blue, tipt with white ; wing-
coverts violet blue tipt with black ; vent dusky ; legs and feet yel-
lowish red, in some pale yellow ochre, webs dusky ; claws strong
and hooked.

The above is as accurate a description as I can give of a very
perfect specimen now before me, from which the figure in the plate
was faithfully copied.

The female is between seventeen and eighteen inches in length,
and has the head slightly crested, crown dark purple, behind the
eye a bar of white ; bill white in the centre, largely l idged and
margined with dark horn color ; irides dark reddish hazel ; eyelids
bright yellow ; chin, and throat for two inches, also while ; head
and neck dark drab ; breast dusky brown, marked with large tri-
angular spots of white ; back dark glossy bronze brown, with some
gold and greenish reflections. Speculum of the wings nearly the
same as in the male, but the fine penciling of the sides, and the long
hair-like tail-coverts, are wanting; the tail is also shorter; legs and
feet pale greenish olive, webs dusky.

2 D

VOL. VUI.

106

GREEN-WINGED TEAL.

AJVAS CRECCA.

[Plate LXX.— Fig. 4, Male.l

Gmel. Syst, 1, p. 532, No. 33 ; A. Carolinensis, Id. p. 533, No. 103. — Ind. Orn.p. 872, No,
100; p. 874, No. 101. Common Teal^ Gen. Syn. 3, 551, No. 88 ; American Tealyld. p.

554, No. 90. — European Teal^ Arct. Zool. voi. 2, p. 305, P. 4to. ; American Teal, Id. No.
504. Br. Zool. No. 290. — Bewick, 338. — Lapetite Sarcelle^ Briss. VI, 436, No.

32, /)/. 40,7?^. 1. — Buff. IX, j&. 265 y pi, 17, 18. PL Enl. 947. — Canard Sarcelle d^hiver,
Temm. Man. d^Orn. p. 846. — Willughby, p, 377, ^ VI. — Peale’s Museum^ No.
2832 ; femalcy 2833.

THE naturalists of Europe have designated this little Duck
by the name of the American Teal, as being a species different
from their own. On an examination, however, of the figure and
description of the European Teal by the ingenious and accurate
Bewick, and comparing them with the present, no difference what-
ever appears in the length, extent, color, or markings of either, but
what commonly occurs among individuals of any other tribe ; both
undoubtedly belong to one and the same species.

This, like the preceding, is a fresh water Duck, common in
our markets in autumn and winter ; but rarely seen here in sum-
mer. It frequents ponds, marshes, and the reedy shores of creeks
and rivers. Is very abundant among the rice plantations of the
southern states ; flies in small parties, and feeds at night. Asso-
ciates often with the Mallard, feeding on the seeds of various kinds
of grasses and water plants, and also on the tender leaves of vege-
tables. Its flesh is accounted excellent.

The Green-winged Teal is fifteen inches in length, and twenty-
four inches in extent ; bill black ; irides pale brown ; .lower eye lid
whitish ; head glossy reddish chestnut ; from the eye backwards to
the nape runs a broad band of rich silky green, edged above and

GREEN-WINGED TEAL.

107

below by a fine line of brownish white, the plumage of the nape
ends in a kind of pendent crest of a deep shining purplish black ;
chin blackish ; below the chestnut, the neck, for three quarters of
an inch, is white, beautifully crossed with circular undulating lines
of black ; back, scapulars, and sides of the breast, white, thickly
crossed in the same manner ; breast elegantly marked with round-
ish or heart-shaped spots of black on a pale vinaceous ground, va-
riegated with lighter tints ; belly white ; lower part of the vent
feathers black ; sides under the wings, pale reddish cream ; the
plumage of a fine silky texture, and superbly marked witli undulat-
ing lines of ash and white ; lesser wing-coverts brown ash, greater
tipt with reddish cream ; the first five secondaries deep velvetty
black, the next five resplendent green, forming the speculum or
beauty spot, which is bounded above by pale buff, below by white,
and on each side by deep black ; primaries ashy brown ; tail point-
ed, eighteen feathers, dark drab ; legs and feet flesh colored. In
some a few circular touches of white appear on the breast, near
the shoulder of the wing. The windpipe has a small bony laby-
rinth where it separates into the lungs ; the intestines measure
three feet six inches, and are very small and tender. In some spe-
cimens the legs and feet are pale ash.

The female wants the chestnut bay on the head, and the band
of rich green through the eye, these parts being dusky white speck-
led with black ; the breast is gray brown, thickly sprinkled with
blackish, or dark brown ; the back dark brown, waved with broad
lines of brownish white ; wing nearly the same as in the male.

This species is said to breed at Hudson’s bay, and to have
from five to seven young at a time.* In France it remains through-
out the year, and builds in April, among the rushes on the edges
of ponds. It has been lately discovered to breed also in England,
in the mosses about Carlisle.’)" It is not known to breed in any
part of the United States.

* Latham.

t Bewick.

108

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

AJVAS VJILLISJVERM.

[Plate LXX.— Fig. 5, Male.']

Buil^neck Duck., Lawson’s Carolina, p. 150. — Peale’s Museum, No* 2B\6 ; female, 2817.

THIS celebrated American species, as far as can be judged
from the best figures and deseriptions of foreign birds, is altoge-
ther unknown in Europe. It approaches nearest to the Pochard
of England, Jlnas ftrina^ but differs from that bird in being supe-
rior in size and weight, in the greater magnitude of its bill, and
tlie general whiteness of its plumage. A short comparison of the
two will elucidate this point. The Canvass-back measures two
feet in length, by three feet in extent, and when in the best order
weighs three pounds and upwards. The Pochard, according to
Latham and Bewick, measures nineteen inches in length, and
thirty in extent, and weighs one pound twelve or thirteen ounces.
The latter writer says of the Pochard, “ the plumage above and
below is wholly covered with prettily freckled slender dusky
threads disposed transversely in close set zigzag lines, on a pale
ground, more or less shaded off with ash;” a description much
more applicable to the bird figured beside it, the Red-head^ and
which very probably is the species meant. In the figure of the
Pochard given by Mr. Bewick, who is generally coi rect, the bill
agrees very well with that of our Red-head ; but is scai-cely half
the size and thickness of that of the Canvass-back ; and the figure
in the Planches Enluminees corresponds in that respect with Be-
wick’s. In short, either these writers are egregiously erroneous
in their figures and descriptions, or the present duck was altogether
unknown to them. Considering the latter supposition the more

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

109

probable of the two, I have designated this as a new species, and
shall proceed to detail some particulars of its history.

The Canvass-back Duck arrives in the United States from
the north about the middle of October ; a few descend to the Hud-
son and Delaware, but the great body of these birds resort to the
numerous rivers belonging to, and in the neighborhood of, the
Chesapeake bay, particularly the Susqiiehannali, the Patapsco,
Potomac, and James’ rivers, which appear to be their general
winter rendezvous. Beyond this, to the south, I can find no cer-
tain accounts of them. At the Susquehannah they are called Can-
vass-backs, on the Potomac JF/iite-backs, and on James’ river
Sheldrakes, They are seldom found at a great distance up any of
these rivers, or even in the salt water bay; but in that particular
part of tide water where a certain grass-like plant grows, on the
roots of which they feed. This plant, which is said to be a
species of VaUisneria,^ grows on fresh water shoals of from seven
to nine feet (but never where these are occasionally dry), in long-
narrow grass-like blades of four or five feet in length ; the root is
white, and has some resemblance to small celery. This grass is
in many places so thick that a boat can with dilFiculty be rowed
through it, it so impedes the oars. The shores are lined with
large quantities of it torn up by the Ducks, and drifted up by the
winds, lying like hay in wind-i'ows. Wherever this plant grows
in abundance the Canvass-backs may be expected, either to pay
occasional visits, or to make it their regular residence during the
winter. It occurs in some parts of the Hudson ; in the Delaware
near Gloucester, four or five miles below Philadelphia ; and in most
of the rivers that fall into the Chesapeake ; to each of which par-
ticular places these Ducks resort ; while in waters unprovided with
this nutritive plant they are altogether unknown.

On the first arrival of these birds in the Susquehannah, near
Havre-de-Grace, they are generally lean ; but such is the abun-

* The Vallisneria Americana of authors.

2 E

VOL. VIII.

no

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

dance of their favorite food, that towards the beginning of Novem-
ber they arc in pretty good order. They are excellent divers, and
swim with great speed and agility. They sometimes assemble in
such multitudes as to cover several acres of the river, and when
they rise suddenly, produce a noise resembling thunder. They
float about these shoals, diving and tearing up the grass by the
roots, which is the only part they eat. They are extremely shy,
and can rarely be approached unless by stratagem. When wound-
ed in the wing they dive to such prodigious distances, and with
such rapidity, continuing it so perseveringly, and with such cun-
ning and active vigor, as almost always to render the pursuit hope-
less. From the great demand for these Ducks, and the high price
they uniformly bring in market, various modes are practised to get
within gunshot of them. The most successful way is said to be,
decoying them to the shore by means of a dog, while the gunner
lies closely concealed in a proper situation. The dog, if properly
trained, plays backwards and forwards along the margin of the
water, and the Ducks observing his manoeuvres, enticed perhaps
by curiosity, gradually approach the shore, until they are some-
times within twenty or thirty yards of the spot where the gunner
lies concealed, and from which he rakes them, first on the water
and then as they rise. This method is called tolling them in. If
the Ducks seem difficult to decoy, any glaring object, such as a red
handkerchief, is fixed round the dog^s middle, or to his tail, and
tl\is rarely fails to attract them. Sometimes by moonlight the
spoi tsman directs his skiff towards a flock whose position he had
previously ascertained, keeping within the projecting shadow of
some wood, bank, or headland, and paddles along so silently and
imperceptibly as often to approach within fifteen or twenty yards
of a flock of many thousands, among which he generally makes
great slaughter.

Many other stratagems are practised, and indeed every plan
that the ingenuity of the experienced sportsman can suggest, to

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

Ill

approach within gunshot of these birds ; but of all the modes pur-
sued, none intimidate them so much as shooting them by night;
and they soon abandon the place where they have been thus re-
peatedly shot at. During the day they are dispersed about; but
towards evening collect in large flocks, and come into the mouths
of creeks, where they often ride as at anchor, with their head un-
der their wing, asleep, there being always sentinels awake ready
to raise an alarm on the least appearance of danger. Even when
feeding and diving in small parties, the whole never go down at
one time, but some are still left above on the look-out.

When the winter sets in severely, and the river is frozen, the
Canvass-backs retreat to its confluence with the bay, occasionally
frequenting air holes in the ice, which are sometimes made for
the purpose, immediately above their favorite grass, to entice them
within gunshot of the hut or bush which is usually fixed at a pro-
per distance, and where the gunner lies concealed, ready to take
advantage of their distress. A Mr. Hill, who lives near James’
river, at a place called Herring Creek, informed me, that one se-
vere winter he and another person broke a hole in the ice about
twenty by forty feet, immediately over a shoal of grass, and took
their stand on the shore in a hut of brush, each having three guns
well loaded with large shot. The Ducks, which were flying up and
down the river in great extremity, soon crowded to this place, so
that the whole open space was not only covered with them, but
vast numbers stood on the ice around it. They had three rounds,
firing both at once, and picked up eighty-eight Canvass-backs, and
might have collected more had they been able to get to the extre-
mity of the ice after the wounded ones. In the severe winter of
1779-80, the Fallisneria was almost wholly destroyed in James’
river. In the month of January the wind continued to blow from
W. N. W. for twenty-one days, which caused such low tides in the
river that the Duck-grass froze to the ice every where, and a thaw
coming on suddenly, the whole was raised by the roots and carried

112

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

off by the fresh. The next winter a few of these Ducks were seen,
but they soon went away again ; and for many years after, they
continued to be scarce ; and even to the present day, in the opin-
ion of my informant, have never been so plenty as before.

The Canvass-back, in the rich juicy tenderness of its flesh, and
its delicacy of flavor, stands unrivalled by the whole of its tribe in
this or perhaps any other quarter of the world. Those killed in
the waters of the Chesapeake are generally esteemed superior to
all others, doubtless from the great abundance of their favorite
food which these rivers produce. At our public dinners, hotels,
and particular entertainments, the Canvass-backs are universal fa-
vorites. They not only grace but dignify the table, and their very
name conveys to the imagination of the eager epicure the most
comfortable and exhilarating ideas. Hence on such occasions it
has not been uncommon to pay from one to three dollars a pair
for these Ducks j and, indeed, at such times, if they can they must
be had, whatever may be the price.

The Canvass-back will feed readily on corn, especially wheat ;
and may be decoyed to pai'ticular places by baiting them with that
grain for several successive days. Some few years since a vessel
loaded with wheat was wrecked near the entrance of Great Egg-
Harbor, in the autumn, and went to pieces. The wheat floated
out in vast quantities ; and the whole surface of the bay was in a
few days covered with Ducks of a kind altogether unknown to the
people of that quarter. The gunners of the neighborhood col-
lected in boats, in every direction, shooting them ; and so success-
ful were they, that, as Mr. Beasley informed me, two hundred and
forty were killed in one day, and sold among the neighbors, at
twelve and a half cents a piece, without the feathers. The wound-
ed ones were generally abandoned, as being too diflicult to be
come up with. They continued about for three weeks, and dur-
ing the greater part of that time a continual cannonading was
heard from every quarter. The gunners called them Sea Ducks.

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

113

They were all Cajivass-backs^ at that time on their way from the
north, when this floating feast attracted their attention, and for a
while arrested them in their course. A pair of these very Ducks
I myself bought in Philadelphia market at the time, from an Egg-
Harbor gunner, and never met with their superior either in weight
or excellence of flesh. When it was known among those people
the loss they had sustained in selling for twenty-five cents what
would have brought them from a dollar to a dollar and a half per
pail*, universal surprise and regret were naturally enough excited.

The Canvass-back is two feet long, and three feet in extent,
and when in good order weighs three pounds and a half ; the bill
is large, rising high in the head, three inches in length, and one
inch and three eighths thick at the base, of a glossy black ; eye
very small, irides dark red ; cheeks and forepart of the head black-
ish brown ; rest of the head and greater part of the neck bright
glossy reddish chestnut, ending in a broad space of black that co-
vers the upper part of the breast, and spreads round to the back ;
back, scapulars, and tertials, white, faintly marked with an infinite
number of transverse waving lines or points, as if done with a pen-
cil ; whole lower parts of the breast, also the belly, white, slightly
penciled in the same manner, scarcely perceptible on the bi east,
pretty thick towards the vent ; wing-coverts gray, with numerous
specks of blackish; primaries and secondaries pale slate, two or
three of the latter of which, nearest the body, are finely edged with
deep velvetty black, the former dusky at the tips ; tail very short,
pointed, consisting of fourteen feathers, of a hoary brown ; vent
and tail-coverts black ; lining of the wing white ; legs and feet
very pale ash, the latter three inches in width, a circumstance
which partly accounts for its great powers of swimming.

The female is somewhat less than the male, and weighs three
pounds ; the crown is blackish brown, cheeks and throat of a pale
drab ; neck dull brown ; breast, as far as the black extends on the

male, dull brown, skirted in places with pale drab ; back dusky

2 F

VOL. VIII.

114

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

white, crossed with fine waving lines ; belly of the same dull white,
penciled like the back ; wings, feet, and bill, as in the male ; tail-
coverts dusky, vent white, waved with brown.

The windpipe of the male has a large flattish concave laby-
rinth, the ridge of which is covered with a thin transparent mem-
brane ; where the trachea enters this it is very narrow, but imme-
diately above swells to three times that diameter. The intestines

are wide and measure five feet in length.

It is a circumstance calculated to excite our surprise, that the
Canvass-back, one of the commonest species of our country, a Duck
which frequents the waters of the Chesapeake in flocks of countless
thousands, should yet have been either overlooked by the natural-
ists of Europe, or confounded with the Pochard, a species whose
characters are so obviously different. But that this is the fact the
Editor feels well assured, since he has carefully examined every
author of repute, to which he has had access, and has not been
enabled to find any description which will correspond to the sub-
ject before us. The species, then, we hope, will stand as Wdson’s
own ; and it is no small addition to the fame of the American Or-
nithology that it contains the first scientific account of the finest
Duck that any country can boast of.

The Canvass-back frequents the Delaware in considerable
numbers. The Vallisneria grows pretty abundantly, in various
places, from Burlington, New Jersey, to Eagle Point, a few miles
below Philadelphia. Wherever this plant is found there will the
Ducks be ; and they will frequently venture within reach of their
enemies^ weapons rather than abstain from the giatification of theii
appetite for this delicious food. The shooters in the neighborhood
of Philadelphia for many years were in the habit of supplying our
markets with this species, which always bore the name of Red-
heads or Red-necks ; and their ignorance of its being the true Can-
vass-hack was cunningly fostered by our neighbors of the Chesa-
peake, who boldly asserted that only their waters were favored

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

115

with this speciesj and that all other Ducks, which seemed to claim
affinity, were a spurious race, unworthy of consanguinity. Hence
at the same time when a pair of legitimate Canvass-backs, proudly
exhibited from the Mail-coach, from Havre-de-Grace, readily sold
for two dollars and fifty cents, a pair of the identical species, as
fat, as heavy, as delicious, but which had been unfortunately killed
in the Delaware, brought only one dollar ; and the lucky shooter
thought himself sufficiently rewarded in obtaining twenty-five per
cent, more for his Eed-necks than he could obtain for a pair of the
finest Mallards that our waters could afford. But tlie delusion is
now passed; every shooter and huckster knows the distinctive cha-
racters of the Canvass-back and the Red-head ; and prejudice no
longer controverts the opinion that this species is a common in-
habitant of the Delaware ; and epicures are compelled to confess
that they can discern no difference between our Canvass-back,
when in season, and that from Spesutie, or Carrol’s Island, the no-
torious shooting ground of the Bon-vivants of Baltimore.

The last mentioned place, though commonly termed an island,
is properly a peninsula, situated on the western side of the Chesa-
peake bay, a few miles from Baltimore. It is a spot highly favor-
able for the shooting of water fowl. It extends for a considerable
distance into the bay ; and, being connected to the main land by
a narrow neck, the shooters are enabled to post themselves advan-
tageously on the isthmus, and intercept the fowl, who, in roving
from one feeding ground to another, commonly prefer crossing the
land to taking a long flight around the peninsula. In calm weather
the shooters have not much luck, the Ducks keeping out in the
coves, and, when they do move, flying high ; but should a fresh
breeze prevail, especially one from the eastward, rare sport may be
anticipated ; and it is no unusual circumstance for a party of four
or five gentlemen, returning home, after a couple of days’ excur-
sion, with fifty or sixty Canvass-backs, besides some other Ducks of
inferior note. The greatest flight of Ducks commonly takes place

116

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

between daybreak and sunrise, and while it lasts the roaring of the
fowling pieces, the bustle of the sportsmen, the fluttering of the
fowl, and the plunging of the dogs, constitute a scene productive of
intense interest. The dog in most esteem for this amusement is a
large breed, partaking of the qualities of the Newfoundland variety.
They trust altogether to their sight, and it is astonishing what sa-
gacity they will manifest in watching a flock of Ducks that had
been shot at, and marking the birds that drop into the water, even
at a considerable distance off. When at fault, the motion of theii
master’s hand is readily obeyed by them ; and when unable to per-
ceive tlie object of their search, they will raise themselves in the
water for this purpose, and will not abandon the pursuit while a
chance remains of succeeding. A generous, well-trained dog, has
been known to follow a Duck for more than half a mile ; and, af-
ter having been long beyond the reach of seeing or hearing his
master, to return puffing and snorting under his load, which seem-
ed sufficient to drag him beneath the waves. The Editor having
been an eye-witness of similar feats of these noble animals, can
therefore speak with confidence as to the fact.

On the Delaware but few of this species, comparatively, are
obtained, for the want of proper situations whence they may be
shot on the wing. To attempt to approach them, in open day, with
a boat, is unproductive labor, except there be floating ice in the
river, at which time, if the shooter clothe himself in white, and
paint his skiff of the same color, he may so deceive the Ducks as
to get within a few feet of them. At such times it is reasonable to
suppose that these valuable birds get no quarter. But there is one
caution to be observed, which experienced sportsmen never omit :
it is to go always xvith the current ; a Duck being sagacious enough
to know that a lump of ice seldom advances against the stream.
They are often shot, with us, by moonlight, in the mode related in
the foregoing aecount ; the first pair the Editor ever killed was in

CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

117

this manner ; he was then a boy, and was not a little gratified with
his uncommon acquisition.

As the Vallisneria will grow in all our fresh water rivers, in
coves, or places not affected by the current, it would be worth the
experiment to transplant this vegetable in those waters where it at
present is unknown. There is little doubt the Canvass-backs would,
by this means, be attracted ; and thus would afford the lovers of
good eating an opportunity of tasting a delicacy, which, in the
opinion of many, is unrivalled by the whole feathered race.

In the spring, when the Duck-grass becomes scarce, the Can-
vass-backs are compelled to subsist upon other food, particularly
shell-fish; their flesh then loses its delicacy of flavor, and although
still fat, it is not esteemed by epicures; hence the Ducks are not
much sought after ; and are permitted quietly to feed until their
departure for the north.

Our author states that he had had no certain accounts of this
species to the southward of James’ river, Virginia. In the month
of January, 1818, the Editor saw many hundreds of these Ducks
feeding in the Savannah river, not far from Tybee light-house.
They were known by the name of Canvass-backs ; but the inhabi-
tants of that quarter considered them as fishing Ducks, not fit to be
eaten: so said the pilot of the ship which bore the Editor to Sa-
vannah. But a pair of these birds having been served up at table,
after his arrival, he was convinced, by their delicate flavor, that
they had lost little by their change of residence, but still maintain-
ed their superiority over all the water fowl of that region. In the
river St. John, in East Florida, the Editor also saw a few scattered
individuals of this species ; but they were too shy to be approach-
ed within gunshot.

The Canvass-backs swim very low, especially when fat ; and
when pursued by a boat, they stretch themselves out in lines, in the
manner of the Scaup Ducks, so that some of the flock are always

enabled to reconnoitre the paddler, and give information, to the

2 G

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CANVASS-BACK DUCK.

rest, of his motions. When the look-out Ducks apprehend danger,
the stretching up of their necks is the signal, and immediately the
whole squadron, facing to the wind, rise with a noise which maybe
heard at the distance of half a mile.

The guns employed in Canvass-back shooting should be of a
medium length and caliber ; and of the most approved patent
breech. The Editor’s experience has taught him that a barrel of
three feet, seven inches, with a bore short of seven eighths of an
inch, is quite as effective as one of greater dimensions ; and is cer-
tainly more convenient. It may appear a woi'k of supererogation to
speak of the quality of powder to be used in this kind of sporting;
and yet so often are shooters deceived in this article, either through
penuriousness or negligence, that a word of advice may not be un-
profitable. One should obtain the best powder, without regard to
price ; it being an indisputable maxim in shooting, but which is
too often forgotten, that the best is always the cheapest.

119

RED-HEADED DUCK.

AJVAS FERIJVJl.

[Plate LXX, — Fig. 6, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 530, No. 31 ; A, rufa. Id. p, 515, No. 71.— 7n(/. Orn. p, 862, No. IT-.p
863, No. 78. Rufous-necked Duck, Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 477, No. 32 ; Pochard, Id. p. 523
No. 68. — Red-head Duck, Lawson’s Carolina, p. 150. — Bewick, II, p. 320. — Arct
Zool. No. 491. Rr. Zool. No. 284. — Le Miliouin, Briss. VI, p. 384, No. 19, pi. 35, fig
1 ; Le Miliouin noir. Id. p. 389, A, young male? ; Le Miliouin du Mexique, Id. p. 390
No. 20, female? — Buff. IX, />. 216. PI, Lnl. 803. — TEMM.il/an. i/’Om. />. 869. — Wil
LUCHBY, p. 367, ^ XI. — Montagu, Orn. Die. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2710; female
No. 2711.

THIS is a common associate of the Canvass-back, frequenting
the same places, and feeding on the stems of the same grass, the
latter eating only the roots; its flesh is very little inferior ; and it
is often sold in our markets for the Canvass-back, to those unac-
quainted with the characteristic marks of each. Anxious as I am
to determine precisely whether this species be the Red-headed
Wigeon, Pochard, or Dun bii-d*" of England, I have not been able
to ascertain the point to my own satisfaction ; though I think it
very probably the same, the size, extent, and general description
of the Pochard, agreeing pretty nearly with this.

The Red-head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six
inches in extent; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two inches
long, and seven eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished
with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides flame-colored;
plumage of the head long, velvetty, and inflated, running high
above the base of the bill; head, and about two inches of the

* Local names given to one and the same Duck. It is also called the Poker.

120

RED-HEADED DUCK.

neck, deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest of the neck and upper part
of the breast black, spreading round to the back ; belly white, be-
coming dusky towards the vent, by closely marked undulating lines
of black; back and scapulars bluish white, rendered gray by nu-
merous transverse waving lines of black; lesser wing-coverts
brownish ash; wing quills very pale slate, dusky at the tips ; lower
part of the back, and sides under the wings, brownish black, cross-
ed with regular zigzag lines of whitish; vent, rump, tail, and tail-
coverts, black ; legs and feet dark ash.

The female has the upper part of the head dusky brown, rest
of the head, and part of the neck, a light sooty brown ; upper part
of the breast ashy brown, broadly skirted with whitish ; back dark
ash, with little or no appearance of white penciling ; wings, bill,
and feet, nearly alike in both sexes.

This Duck is sometimes met with in the rivers of North and
South Carolina, and also in those of New Jersey and New York;
but generally in fresh water, and usually at no great distance from
the sea. Is most numerous in the waters of the Chesapeake ; and
with the connoisseurs in good eating, ranks next in excellence to
the Canvass-back. Its usual weight is about two pounds, avoirdu-
pois.

The Red-head leaves the Chesapeake bay, and its tributary
streams, in March, and is not seen until late in October.

The male of this species has a large flat bony labyrinth on the
bottom of the windpipe, very much like that of the Canvass-back,
but smaller; over one of its concave sides is spread an exceeding
thin transparent skin, or membrane. The intestines are of great
width, and measure six feet in length.

121

MALLARD.

BOSCHJIS.

[Plate LXX.— Fig. 7, Male.]

Gmel. S^st. I, p. 538, JVo. 40. — Ind. Orn. p. 850, JVo. 49. Gen. S^n. Ill, p. 489, jYo. 43.
—Arct. ZooL JVo. 494. Br. Zool No. 279. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 835.— Bewick, II,
p. 291. — Le Canard Satwage^ Briss. VI, p. 318, 4. — Buff. IX, p. 115, pi 7, 8. PL Enl.
776, male ; 111^ female. — Willughby, p. 371. — Cuv. Rhg. An. I, p. 537. — Peale’s
Museumy No. 2864 ; femaloy No. 2865.

THE Mallard is so universally known as scarcely to require
a description. It measures twenty-four inches in length, by three
feet in extent ; and weighs, when in good condition, nearly three
pounds and a half;* the bill is greenish yellow ; irides hazel ; front,
crown and throat, deep black; the rest of the head, and part of the
neck, deep glossy changeable green, ending in a narrow interrupt-
ed collar of white ; the remainder of the neck and breast is of a
dark purplish chestnut ; lesser wing-coverts broAvn ash, greater
crossed near the extremities with a band of white, and tipt with
another of deep velvetty black ; below this lies the speculum, or
beauty spot, of a rich and splendid light purple, with green and
violet reflections, bounded on every side with black ; quills pale

* In the first edition it is stated that the Mallard weighs upwards of two pounds and a
half. It is to be presumed that our author never weighed one himself, otherwise this error would
not have escaped him. According to Latham the usual weight is two pounds and a half ; but
he observes that several were taken in Suffolk of the weiglit of three pounds and a half. Pen-
nant says that he had seen one of three pounds one ounce. The Editor shot a male on the De-
laware, in the month of April, which weighed three pounds five ounces ; and he saw them
in Florida, in the winter, when they are fatter than in the spring, of greater weight. In the
month of March he shot two females, in East Florida, weighing two pounds each.

VOL. vin.

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122

MALLARD.

bi’ownish ash ; lining of the wings white ; back brown, skirted with
paler; scapulars whitish, crossed with fine undulating lines of
black; rump and tail-coverts black, glossed with green; tertials
very broad and pointed at the ends ; tail consisting of twenty fea-
thers, whitish, centred with brown ash, the four middle feathers
excepted, which are narrow, black, glossed with green, and re-
markably concave, the two upper ones curling in the form of a cir-
cle, the other two forming a semicircle; belly and sides a fine
gray, crossed by an infinite number of fine waving lines, stronger
and more deeply marked as they approach the vent; legs and
feet orange red.

The female has the plumage of the upper parts dark brown,
broadly bordered with brownish yellow ; and the lower parts yel-
low ochre, spotted and streaked with deep brown ; the chin and
throat for about two inches, plain yellowish white ; wings, bill, and
legs, nearly as in the male. When fat weighs upwards of two
pounds.

The windpipe of the male has a bony labyrinth, or bladder-
like knob, puffing out from the left side. The intestines measure
six feet, and are as wide as those of the Canvass-back. The wind-
pipe is of uniform diameter until it enters the labyrinth.

This is the original stock of the common domesticated Duck,
reclaimed, immemorially, from a state of nature, and now become
so serviceable to man. In many individuals the general garb of
the tame Drake seems to have undergone little or no alteration ;
but the stamp of slavery is strongly imprinted in his dull indiffer-
ent eye, and grovelling gait; while the lofty look, long tapering
neck, and sprightly action of the former, bespeak his native spirit
and independence,

1 he common Wild Duck is found in every fresh water lake
and river of the United States in winter; but seldom frequents the
seashores or salt marshes. Their summer residence is in the north,
the great nursery of this numerous genus. Instances have been

MALLARD.

123

known of some solitary pairs breeding here in autumn. In Eng-
land these instances are more common. The nest is usually placed
in the most solitary recesses of the marsh, or bog, amidst coarse
grass, reeds, and rushes, and generally contains from twelve to
sixteen eggs of a dull greenish white. The young are led about
by the mother in the same manner as those of the tame Duck ; but
with a superior caution, a cunning and watchful vigilance, pecu-
liar to her situation. The male attaches himself to one female,
as among other birds in their native state, and is the guardian
and protector of her and her feeble brood. The Mallard is nu-
merous in the rice fields of the southern states during winter ;
many of the fields being covered with a few inches of water, and
the scattered grains of the former harvest lying in abundance, the
Ducks swim about and feed at pleasure.

The flesh of the common Wild Duck is in general and high
estimation ; and the ingenuity of man, in every country where it
frequents, has been employed in inventing stratagems to overreach
these wary birds, and procure a delicacy for the table. To enu-
merate all these various contrivances would far exceed our limits ;
a few, however, of the most simple and eflective may be men-
tioned.

In some ponds frequented by these birds, five or six wooden
figures, cut and painted so as to represent Ducks, and sunk, by
pieces of lead nailed on their bottoms, so as to float at the usual
depth on the surface, are anchored in a favorable position for be-
ing raked from a concealment of brush, &c. on shore. 1 he ap-
pearance of these usually attracts passing flocks, which alight, and
are shot down. Sometimes eight or ten of these painted wooden
Ducks are fixed on a frame in various swimming postures, and se-
cured to the bow of the gunner’s skiflF, projecting before it in such
a manner that the weight of the frame sinks the figures to their
proper depth ; the skiff is then drest with sedge or coarse grass
in an artful manner, as low as the water’s edge ; and under cover

124

MALLARD.

of this, which appears like a party of ducks swimming by a small
island, the gunner floats down sometimes to the very skirts of a
whole congregated multitude, and pours in a destructive and re-
peated fire of shot among them. In winter, when detached pieces
of ice are occasionally floating in the river, some of the gunners
on the Delaware paint their whole skiff or canoe white, and laying
themselves flat at the bottom, with their hand over the side silently
managing a small paddle, direct it imperceptibly into or near a
flock, before the ducks have distinguished it from a floating mass
of ice, and generally do great execution among them. A whole
flock has sometimes been thus surprised asleep, with their heads
under their wings. On land, another stratagem is sometimes prac-
tised with great success. A large tight hogshead is sunk in the
flat marsh, or mud, near the place where ducks are accustomed to
feed at low water, and where otherwise there is no shelter ; the
edges and top are artfully concealed with tufts of long coarse grass
and reeds, or sedge. From within this the gunner, unseen and
unsuspected, watches his collecting prey, and when a sufficient
number offers, sweeps them down with great effect. The mode
of catching Wild Ducks, as practised in India,* China, f the island
of Ceylon, and some parts of South America,^ has been often de-
scribed, and seems, if reliance may be placed on those accounts,
only practicable in water of a certain depth. The sportsman co-
vering his head with a hollow wooden vessel or calabash, pierced
with holes to see through, wades into the water, keeping only his
head above, and thus disguised, moves in among the flock, which
take the appearance to be a mere floating calabash, while sudden-
ly pulling them under by the legs, he fastens them to his girdle,
and thus takes as many as he can conveniently stow away, with-
out in the least alarming the rest. They are also taken with

* Naval Chron. vol. ii, p. 473.
t Du Halde, Hist. China, vol. ii, p. 142.
^ Ulloii’s Voy. i, p. 53.

MALLARD.

125

snares made of horse hair, or with hooks baited with small pieces
of sheep s lights, which floating on the surface, are swallowed by
the Ducks, and with them the hooks. They are also approached
under cover of a stalking-horse, or a figure formed of thin boards,
or other proper materials, and painted so as to represent a horse
or ox. But all these methods require much watching, toil, and
fatigue, and their success is but trifling when compared with that
of the Decoy now used both in France and England,* which, from
its superiority over every other mode, is well deserving the atten-
tion of persons of this country residing in the neighborhood of ex-
tensive marshes frequented by Wild Ducks ; as, by this method.

Mallard and other kinds may be taken by thousands at a time.

The following circumstantial account of these decoys, and the
manner of taking Wild Ducks in them in England, is extracted
from Bewick’s History of British Birds, vol. 11, p, 294.

“ In the lakes where they resort,” says the correspondent of
that ingenious author, “ the most favorite haunts of the fowl are
observed : then in the most sequestered part of this haunt, they cut
a ditch about four yards across at the entrance, and about fifty or
sixty yards in length, decreasing gradually in width from the en-
trance to the farther end, which is not more than two feet wide.

It is of a circular form, but not bending much for the first ten
yards. The banks of the lake, for about ten yards on each side
of this ditch, or pipe, as it is called, are kept clear from reeds,
coarse herbage, &c. in order that the fowl may get on them to sit
and dress themselves. Across this ditch, poles on each side, close
to the edge of the ditch, are driven into the ground, and the tops
bent to each other and tied fast. These poles at the entrance
form an arch, from the top of which to the water is about ten
feet. This arch is made to decrease in height, as the ditch de-
creases in width, till the farther end is not more than eighteen

^ Particularly in Picardy, in the former country, and Lincolnshire in the latter.

VOL. VIII. 2 i

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West f ^ Pa.,

on • nifCondW

126

MALLARD.

inches in height. The poles are placed about six feet from each
other, and connected together by poles laid lengthwise across the
arch, and tied together. Over them a net, with meshes sufficiently
small to prevent the fowl getting through, is thrown across, and
made fast to a reed fence at the entrance, and nine or ten yards
up the ditch, and afterwards strongly pegged to the ground. At
the farther end of the pipe, a tunnel net, as it is called, is fixed,
about four yards in length, of a round form, and kept open by
a number of hoops about eighteen inches in diameter, placed
at a small distance from each other, to keep it distended. Sup-
posing the circular bend of the pipe to be to the light, when
you stand with your back to the lake, on the left hand side a
number of reed fences are constructed, called shootings, for the
pui'pose of screening from sight the decoy-man, and in such a man-
ner, that the fowl in the decoy may not be alarmed, while he is
driving those in the pipe : these shootings are about four yards in
length, and about six feet high, and are ten in number. They are
placed in the following manner :

From the end of the last shooting, a person cannot see the lake,
owing to the bend of the pipe : there is then no farther occasion for
shelter. Were it not for those shootings, the fowl that remain about
the mouth of the pipe would be alarmed, if the person driving the
fowl already under the net should be exposed, and would become
so shy as to forsake the place entirely. The first thing the decoy-
man does when he approaches the pipe, is to take a piece of lighted
turf or peat and hold it near his mouth, to prevent the fowl smell-
ing him. He is attended by a dog taught for the purpose of assist-
ing him : he walks very silently about half Avay up the shootings,
where a small piece of wood is thrust through the reed fence, which
makes an aperture just sufficient to see if any fowl are in ; if not,

MALLARD.

127

he walks forward to see if any are about the mouth of the pipe.
If there are, he stops and makes a motion to his dog, and gives
him a piece of cheese or something to eat ; upon receiving it he
goes directly to a hole through the reed fence, (No. 1.) and the
fowl immediately fly off the bank into the water ; the dog returns
along the bank between the reed fences and the pipe, and comes
out to his master at the hole (No. 2.). The man now gives him
another reward, and he repeats his round again, till the fowl are
attracted by the motions of the dog, and follow him into the mouth
of the pipe. This operation is called working them. The man
now retreats farther back, working the dog at different holes till
the fowl are sufficiently under the net : he now commands his dog
to lie down still behind the fence, and goes forward to the end of
the pipe next the lake, where he takes off his hat and gives it a

REFERENCES TO THE CUT.

No. 1. Dog’s hole, where he goes to unbank the fowl.

2. Reed fences on each side of the mouth of the pipe.

3. Where the decoy-man shows himself to the fowl first, and afterwards at the end of

every shooting.

4. Small reed fence to prevent the fowl seeing the dog when he goes to unbank them.

5. The shootings.

6. Dog’s holes between the shootings, used when working.

7. Tunnel net at the end of the pipe.^

8. Mouth of the pipe. J

128

MALLARD.

wave between the shooting ; all the fowl under the net can see
him, but none that are in the lake can. The fowl that are in sight
fly forward; and the man runs forward to the next shooting and
waves his hat, and so on, driving them along till they come to the
tunnel net, where they creep in : when they are all in, he gives
the net a twist, so as to prevent their getting back : he then takes
the net off from the end of the pipe with what fowl he may have
caught, and takes them out one at a time, and disloeates their
necks, and hangs the net on again; and all is ready for working
again.

“ In this manner five or six dozen have been taken at one
drift. When the wind blows directly in or out of the pipe, the
fowl seldom work well, especially when it blows in. If many
pipes are made in a lake, they should be so constructed as to suit
different winds.

“ Duck and Mallard are taken from August to June. Teal
or Widgeon, from October to March. Becks, Smee, Golden Eyes,
Arps, Cricks, and Pintails or Sea Pheasants, in March and April.

“ Poker Ducks are seldom taken, on account of their diving
and getting back in the pipe.

“ It may be proper to observe here, that the Ducks feed dur-
ing the night, and that all is ready prepared for this sport in the
evening. The better to entice the Ducks into the pipe, hemp seed
is strewed occasionally on the water. The season allowed by act
of parliament for catching these birds in this way, is from the lat-
ter end of October till February.

Particular spots or decoys, in the fen countries, are let to
the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum ;
and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand two
hundred Ducks, including Teals and Widgeons, were sold in Lon-
don only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lincoln-
shire. Formerly, according to Willughby, the Ducks, while in
moult and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, furnished

MALLARD.

129

with long poles, with which they splashed the water between long
nets, stretched vertically across the pools, in the shape of two
sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the point ; and in
this way, he says, four thousand were taken at one driving in
Deeping-Fen ; and Latham has quoted an instance of two thousand
six hundred and forty-six having been taken in two days, near
Spalding in Lincolnshire ; but this manner of catching them while
in moult is now prohibited.”

VOL. VIII.

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L

130

GADWALL.

Jims STEEPEHJl.

[Plate LXXL— Fig. 1, Jllak.]

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 520, JVo. 20. — Ind. Orn, p. 859, No. 69. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 515, No. 61. —
Temm. Man. d'^Otm. p. 837. — Bewick, II, p. 314, — The Gadwallor Willughby,
p, 374.— Ze Chipeau, Briss. VI, p. 339, 8, pi. 33, Jig. 1. — Buff, IX, p. 187. PL Enl.
958. — Arct. Zool. II, p. 303, L. Br. ZooL No. 288. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2750 ; fe-
maky 2751.

THIS beautiful Duck I have met with in very distant parts of
the United States, viz. on the Seneca lake in New York, about the
twentieth of October, and at Louisville on the Ohio, in February.
I also shot it near Big-bone Lick in Kentucky. With its particular
manners or breeding place, I am altogether unacquainted.

The length of this species is twenty inches, extent thirty-five
inches ; irides dark hazel ; bill two inches long, formed very much
like that of the Mallard, and of a brownish black, upper mandible
greatly pectinated ; crown dusky brown, rest of the upper half of
the neck brownish white, both thickly speckled with black ; lower
part of the neck, and breast, dusky black, elegantly ornamented
with large concentric semicircles of white ; scapulars waved with
lines of white on a dusky ground, but narrower than that of the
breast ; primaries ash ; greater wing-coverts black, and several of
the lesser coverts, immediately above, chestnut red, which, with
the white speculum, form three broad conspicuous bands on the
wing, of chestnut, black, and white ; belly dull white ; rump and
tail-coverts black, glossed with green ; tail tapering, pointed, of a
pale brown ash, edged with white ; flanks dull white, elegantly
waved; terlials long, and of a pale brown; legs orange red.

GADWALL.

131

The female I have never seen. Latham describes it as fol-
lows : “ differs in having the colors on the wings duller, though
marked the same as the male ; the breast reddish brown spotted
with black; the feathers on the neck and back edged with pale
red ; rump the same instead of black ; and those elegant semi-
circular lines on the neck and breast wholly wanting.”

The flesh of this duck is excellent, and the windpipe of the
male is furnished with a large labyrinth.

The Gadwall is very rare in the northern parts of the United
States ; is said to inhabit England in winter, and various parts of
France and Italy; migrates to Sweden, and is found throughout
Russia and Siberia.*

It is a very quick diver, so as to make it difficult to be shot ;
flies also with great rapidity, and utters a note not unlike that of
the Mallard, but louder. Is fond of fresh water ponds overgrown
with reeds and rushes. Feeds during the day, as well as in the
morning and evening.

A male specimen which the Editor shot in East Florida, in the
month of February, had its crown of a pale ferruginous, mixed
with brown; head and neck yellowish white, barred and mottled
with brown ; back, outer scapulars, vent and flanks, brown, with
pale zigzag lines ; some of the inner scapulars reddish and viiia-
ceous brown ; upper and under tail-coverts velvet black ; legs and
feet yelloiv ochre^ part of the webs dusky. Weight two pounds.

This species is very rare on the Delaware ; but in East Flo-
rida it is common. On the fresh water ponds, in the vicinity of the
river St. John, the Editor shot many of them ; and found them in
good condition, and excellent eating.

Latham.

132

EIDER DUCK.

JJV^S MOLLISSIJIM.
[Plate LXXL— Fig. 2, Ma/e.]

Gmel. Syst* I, /». 514, Ab. 15. — Ind. Orn.p. 845, Ab. 35. Gen* Syn* III, />. 470, JVo.29,^
L^Oye a diwet^ ou VEider^ Briss. VI, p* 294, pi. 29. — Buff. IX, p. 103, pi. 6. PL EnL
209. — Great Black and White Duck^ Edw. pi. 98. — Bewick, II, p. 279, — Arct. ZooL No*
480. Br. ZooL No* 271. — Temm. Man* (POrn* p* 848.“-WiLLUGHBy, p* 362, — Sa-
LERNE,/>. 415. — Pe ale’s Museum, No* 2706.

THE Eidei’ Duck has been long celebrated in Europe for
the abundance and excellence of its doxvn, which for softness,
warmth, lightness, and elasticity, surpasses that of all other Ducks.
Pennant states that the quantity found in one nest more than filled
the crown of a hat ; yet weighed no more than three quarters of an
ounce; and it is asserted by Salerne that three pounds of this
down may be compressd into a space scarce bigger than a man's
fist ; yet is afterwards so dilatable as to fill a quilt five feet square.

The native regions of the Eider Duck extend from 45° north
to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both in Europe and Ame-
rica. Solitary rocky shores and islands are their favorite haunts.
Some wandering pairs have been known to breed on the rocky
islands beyond Portland in the district of Maine, which is perhaps
the most southern extent of their breeding place. In England the
Fern Isles, on the coast of Northumberland, are annually visited by
a few of these birds, being the only place in South Britain where
they are known to breed. They occur again in some of the West-
ern isles of Scotland. Greenland and Iceland abound with them,
and here, in particular places, their nests are crowded so close
together that a person can scarcely walk without treading on

EIDER DUCK.

133

them. The natives of those countries know the value of the down,
and carry on a regular system of plunder both of it, and also of
the eggs. The nest is generally formed outwardly of drift grass,
dry sea-weed, and such like materials, the inside composed of a
large quantity of down plucked from the breast of the female ; in
this soft elastic bed she deposits five eggs, extremely smooth and
glossy, of a pale olive color; they are also warmly covered with
the same kind of down. When the whole number is laid, they
are taken away by the natives, and also the down with which the
nest is lined, together with that which covers the eggs. The fe-
male once more strips her breast of the remaining down, and lays
a second time ; even this, with the eggs, is generally taken away,
and it is said that the male in this extremity furnishes the third
quantity of down from his own breast ; but if the cruel robbery be
a third time repeated, they abandon the place altogether. One
female, daring the whole time of laying, generally gives half a
pound of down; and we are told, that in the year 1750, the Ice-
land Company sold as much of this article as amounted to three
thousand seven hundred and forty-five banco dollars, besides what
was directly sent to Gluckstadt.* The down from dead birds is
little esteemed, having lost its elasticity.

These birds associate together in flocks, generally in deep
water, diving for shell-fish, which constitute their principal food.
They frequently retire to the rocky shores to rest, particularly on
the appearance of an approaching storm. They are numerous on
the coast of Labrador ; and are occasionally seen in winter as far
south as the capes of the Delaware. T heir flesh is esteemed by the
inhabitants of Greenland; but tastes strongly of fish.

The length of this species is two feet three inches, extent
three feet ; weight between six and seven pounds ; the head is
large, and the bill of singular structure, being three inches in

VOL, VIII.

Letters on Iceland, by Uno Van Troil, p. 14G.

2 L

134

EIDER DUCK.

length, forked in a remarkable manner, running high up in the
forehead, between which the plumage descends nearly to the nos-
tril, the whole of it is of a dull yellowish horn color somewhat
dusky in the middle ; upper part of the head deep velvet black,
divided laterally on the hind-head by a whitish band ; cheeks white ;
sides of the head pale pea green, marked with a narrow line of
white dropt from the ear feathers ; the plumage of this part of the
head, to the throat, is tumid, and looks as if cut off at the end, for
immediately below the neck it suddenly narrows, somewhat in the
manner of the Buffel-head, enlarging again greatly as it descends,
and has a singular hollow between the shoulders behind ; the up-
per part of the neck, the back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, and
sides of the rump, are pure white ; lower part of the breast, belly,
and vent, black ; tail, primaries and secondaries, brownish black,
the tertials curiously curved, falling over the wing ; legs short, yel-
low ; webs of the feet dusky.

Latham has given us the following sketch of the gradual pro-
gress of the young males to their perfect colors : “ In the first year
the back is white, and the usual parts, except the crown, black ;
but the rest of the body is variegated with black and white. In the
second year the neck and breast are spotted black and white, and
the crown black. In the third the colors are nearly as when in full
plumage ; but less vivid, and a few spots of black still remaining
on the neck ; the crown black, and bifid at the back part.

“ The young of both sexes are the same, being covered with
a kind of hairy down : throat and breast whitish ; and a cinereous
line from the bill through the eyes to the hind-head.”

135

FEMALE EIDER DUCK.

[Plate LXXI.— Fig. 3.]

Briss. VI, pi. 30. PI. Enl. 208. — Peale’s Museum, No, 2707.

THE difference of color in these two birds is singularly great.
The female is considerably less than the male, and the bill does
not rise so high in the forehead ; the general color is a dark red-
dish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every where spotted
with black; wings dusky, edged with reddish ; the greater coverts,
and some of the secondaries, are tipt with white ; tail brownish
black, lighter than in the male ; the plumage in general is centred
with bars of black, and broadly bordered with rufous drab ; cheeks
and space over the eye light drab ; belly dusky, obscurely mottled
with black ; legs and feet as in the male.

Van Troil, in his Letters on Iceland, observes respecting this
Duck, that “ the young ones quit the nest soon after they are
hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the water,
where having taken them on her back, she swims with them a
few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the water 1
In this situation they soon learn to take care of themselves, and are
seldom afterwards seen on the land; but live among the rocks, and
feed on insects and sea-weed.”

Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds,
but hitherto without success.

136

SMEW, OR WHITE NUN.

MERGUS ALBELLUS.

[Plate LXXL— Fig. 4, Male.']

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 547, No. S ; M. minutus. Id. p. 548, No. 6. — Lid. Orn. p. 831, No. 6 ;
Id. p. 832, No. 7. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 428, No. 5 ; Minute Merganser, Id. p. i,29.—Le pe-
tit Harle hupc, on la Piette, Briss. VI, /;. 243, 3, pi. 24, Jig. 1, 2 ; VHarle etoile, Id. p.
252, young ma/e.— Buff. VIII, p. 275, pi. 24 ; Id. p. 278. PI. Enl. 449; 450, female.—
Bewick, II, p. 238.— Jrct. Zool. No. 468. Br. Zool. No. 262, 263.— Harle Piette,
Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 887.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2944, a specimen from Europe.

THIS is another of those Mergansers commonly known in
this country by the appellation of Fishermen, Fisher Ducks, oi
Divers. The present species is much more common on the coast
of New England than farther to the south. On the shores of New
Jersey it is very seldom met with. It is an admirable diver, and
can continue for a long time under water. Its food is small fry,
shell-fish, shrimps, &c. In England, as with us, the Smew is seen
only during winter ; it is also found in F ranee, in some parts of
which it is called la Piette, as in parts of England it is named the
Magpie Diver. Its breeding place is doubtless in the Arctic re-
gions, as it frequents Iceland ; and has been observed to migrate
with other Mergansers, and several kinds of Ducks, up the river
Wolga in February.*

The Smew or White Nun is nineteen inches in length, and
two feet three inches in extent ; bill black, formed very much like
that of the Red-breasted M., but not so strongly toothed ; irides
dark ; head crested ; crown white, hind-head black, round the
area of the eye a large oval space of black ; whole neck, breast

* Dec, Russ. II, p. 145.

SMEW.

137

and belly, white, marked on the upper and lower part of the breast
with a curving line of black; back black; scapulars white, cross-
ed with several faint dusky bars ; shoulder of the wing and prima-
I'ies black, secondaries and greater coverts black broadly tipt with
white ; across the lesser coverts a large band of \vhite ; sides and
flanks crossed with waving lines ; tail dark ash ; legs and feet pale
bluish slate.

The female is considerably less than the male ; the bill a dark
lead color; crest of the same peculiar form as that of the male, but
less, and of a i^eddish brown ; marked round the area of the eyes
with dusky ; cheeks, forepart of the neck, and belly, white ; round
the middle of the neck a collar of pale brown ; breast and shoul-
ders dull brown and whitish intermixed ; wings and back marked
like those of the male, but of a deep brownish ash in those parts
which in him are black ; legs and feet pale blue. The young
birds, as in the other three species, strongly resemble the female
during the first and part of the second year. As these changes of
color, from the garb of the female to that of the male, take place
in the remote regions of the north, we have not the opportunity of
detecting them in their gradual progress to full plumage. Hence,
as both males and females have been found in the same dress,
some writers have considered them as a separate species from the
Sinew, and have given to them the title of the Red-headed Smew.

In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes in the
state of New York, where the Smew is frequently observed, these
red-headed kind are often found in company, and more numerous
than the other, for very obvious reasons ; and bear, in the mark-
ings, though not in the colors, of their plumage, evident proof of
their being the same species, but younger birds or females. 1 he
male, like the Muscovy Drake, and many others, when arrived at
his full size, is nearly one third heavier than the female ; and this
disproportion of weight, and difference of color, in the full grown

males and females, are characteristic of the whole genus.

2 M

VOL. VIII.

138

RUDDY DUCK.

AJVJIS JMMICEJVSIS.

[Plate LXXI. — Fig. 5, Jldult Male. — Fig. 6, Young Male,*^

Gmel. Syst. lip. 519, JVd. 83. — Lath. hid. Orn. p. 857, No. 63. Jamaica ShovellcTi Gen.

Syn. in, />. 513. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2808 ; female.^ No. 2809,

IN the first edition of this work the author states that the two
Ducks of this species figured in the plate, as male and female, were
the only individuals that he had ever met with. They had been
shot on the river Delaware ; and were deposited in Peale’s Mu-
seum. On comparing this Duck,” he observes, “ with the de-
scription given by Latham of the Jamaica Shoveller, I was at first
inclined to believe I had found out the species ; but a more careful
examination of both satisfied me that they cannot be the same, as
the present differs considerably in color ; and besides has some
peculiarities which the eye of that acute ornithologist could not
possibly have overlooked, in his examination of the species said to
have been received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the general
residence of this species may be, in this part of the world, at least,
it is extremely rare, since among the many thousands of Ducks
brought to our markets during winter, I have never heard of a sin-
gle individual of the present kind having been found among them.”

It is a circumstance in ornithology well worthy of note, that
migratory birds frequently change their route, and, consequently,
become common in those districts where they had been either un-
known, or considered very rare. Of the Sylvia magnolia, Wilson
declares that he had seen but two individuals, and these in the

* Named in the plate, by mistake, Female.

RUDDY DUCK.

139

western country ; the Muscicapa cucuUata he says is seldom ob-
served in Pennsylvania, and the northern states ; the Muscicapa
pusilla^ and the Muscicapa Canadensis^ he considered rare birds
Avith us; notwithstanding, in the month of May, 1815, all of these
were seen in our gardens ; and the Editor noted the last mentioned
as among the most numerous of the passenger birds of that sea-
son.

The subject of this chapter affords a case in point. The year
subsequent to the death of our author this Duck began to make its
appearance in our waters. In October, 1814, the Editor procured
a female, which had been killed from a flock, consisting of five, at
Wind-mill Island, opposite to Philadelphia. In October, 1818, he
shot three individuals, two females and a male; and in April last
another male, all of which, except one, were young birds. He has
also at various times, since 1814, seen several other male specimens
of this species, not one of which was an adult. In effect, the only
old males which he has ever seen are that in Peale’s Museum, and
another in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phi-
ladelphia.

The Duck figured in the plate as the female was a young male,
as the records of the Museum show ; the great difference between
its colors and markings, and those of the full-plumaged male, hav-
ing induced the author to conclude it was a female, although he
was perfectly familiar with the fact, that the young males of several
species of this genus so nearly resemble the other sex, it requires a
very accurate eye, aided by much experience, to distinguish them
by their external characters. This is precisely the case with the
present species ; the yearlings, of both sexes, are alike ; and it is
not until the succeeding spring that those characters appear in the
males which enable one to indicate them, independent on dissec-
tion.

The opinion of our author that this species is not the Jamaica
Shoveller of Latham the Editor cannot subscribe to, it appearing

140

RUDDY DUCK.

to him that the specimen from which Latham took his description
was a young male of the Duck now before us. The latter informs
us that the species appears in Jamaica in October or November;
remains till March ; and then retires to the north. This account
coincides with ours : we see the bird on its way to the south in Oc-
tober; it reaches Jamaica in November; it departs thence in
March, and revisits us, in regular progression, in April. Where
its summer residence is we are not informed ; and we are equally
ignorant whether the species is numerous in any part of our con-
tinent or not.

Judging from the descriptions of the Ural Duck of European
wj-iters, there should seem to be a great affinity between that and
the present. Through the polite attention of Mr. Charles Bona-
parte, the Editor was enabled to examine a female specimen of the
former ; and as he perceived some differences, he will here note
them. The bill of the Ural Duck, from the angle of the mouth,
is two inches long : that of our Duck is one inch and three quar-
ters, it is also less gibbous at the base than in the former, and it is
less depressed above ; the tail feathers of the Ural Duck are gut-
tered their whole length : those of the Ruddy Duck are slightly
canaliculated at their tips; the lateral membrane of the inner toe
of the latter is not half the breadth of that of the former. In other
respects the females of the two species much resemble each other.
In order to draw a just parallel, it would be necessary to examine
a male specimen of the European Bird, which our cabinets do not
possess.

The adult male, figured in the plate, is thus described by our
author : “ Length fifteen inches and a half, extent twenty-two
inches ; bill broad at the tip, the under mandible much narrower
than the upper, and both of a rich light blue;* nostrils small,
placed in the middle of the bill ; cheeks and chin white ; front,

^ So colored in Peale’s specimen ; but there is reason to conjecture that the color of the
upper mandible alone was a blue ash.

RUDDY DUCK.

141

crown, and back part of the neck down nearly to the back, black ;
rest of the neck, whole back, scapulars, flanks, and tail-coverts,
deep reddish brown, the color of bright mahogany; wings pale
plain drab, darkest at the points ; tail black, greatly tapering, con-
taining eighteen narrow, pointed feathers ; the plumage of the
breast, and upper part of the neck, is of a remarkable kind, being
dusky olive at bottom, ending in hard bristly points of a silvery
gray, very much resembling the hair of some kinds of seal-skins —
this plumage is thickly marked with transverse curving lines of
deep brown ; belly and vent silver gray, thickly crossed with dusky
olive ; under tail-coverts white ; legs and feet ash colored.”

The female is fifteen inches in length ; bill to the angle of the
mouth one inch and three quarters long, its lower half very broad,
of a deep dusky olive, the nail resembling a narrow clasp of iron ;
nostrils oval, with a curved furrow below them ; eyes small and
dark ; the upper part of the head, from the bill to the hind-head,
variegated with shining bronze and blackish brown, the latter
crossing the head in lines ; cheeks white, mixed with dusky, and
some touches of bronze ; lores drab and dusky, mixed with a small
portion of white ; neck short and thick, its lower half above, ex-
tending between the shoulders, drab, mixed with dusky ; throat,
and whole lower parts, dusky ash, the plumage tipt with dull
white, having a silver gray appearance; the upper parts are
dusky, marked or penciled with pale ferruginous, and dull white;
breast slightly tinged with reddish brown; the wings are small,
greatly concave, and, when closed, are short of the extremities of
the tail-coverts about three quarters of an inch — they are dusky,
their coverts finely dotted or powdered with, white; tad dusky,
marked at its extremity with a few very fine dots of reddish white,
it extends beyond its upper coverts two inches and a half; under
tail-coverts white ; legs and feet dusky slate ; weight sixteen ounces

and a half. The gizzard of the above contained sand and some

2 N

VOL. VIII.

142

RUDDY DUCK.

small seeds. Her eggs were numerous and tolerably large ; hence,
as she was shot in the month of October, it was conjectured that
she was a bird of the preceding year.

The young male, shot in April last, measured fifteen inches
in length ; its irides were dark brown ; bill elevated at the base,
slightly gibbous, and blue ash, from the nostrils to the tip mixed
with dusky, lower mandible yellowish flesh color, marbled with
dusky ; crown brown black ; throat and cheeks, as far as the up-
per angle of the bill, white, stained with bright yellow ochre ;
auriculars almost pure white ; the black from the crown surround-
ed the eyes, and passed round the white of the auriculars ; hind-
head black, mixed with ferruginous ; breast and shoulders bright
ferruginous ; belly ash and silver white , back and scapulars liver
brown, finely penciled with gray and reddish white ; rump and up-
per tail-coverts the same ground color, but the markings not so
distinct; wings light liver brown, the lesser coverts finely powder-
ed with gray ; on the back and scapulars, the flanks, and around
the base of the neck, the brownish red or bright mahogany color-
ed plumage, which distinguishes the adult male, was coming out ;
inner webs of the tail partly dusky, outer webs, for two thirds of
their length, and the tip, dirty ferruginous ; legs blue ash in front,
behind, the toes and webs, dusky. When the tail is not spread, it
is somewhat conical, and its narrow, pointed feathers, are slightly
guttered at their tips ; when spread, it is wedge-shaped. The tra-
chea is of nearly equal diameter throughout ; and has no labyrinth
or enlargement at its lower part.

Another young male, shot in October, measured fifteen and a
quarter inches in length, and twenty-three inches in breadth ; bill
greenish black, lower mandible yellowish flesh color, mixed with
dusky ; from the bill to the hind-head a deep liver brown, the tips
of the plumage bronzed ; whole upper parts dark umber brown,
penciled with pale ferruginous, bulF and white ; from the corner of

RUDDY DUCK.

143

the mouth a brown marking extended towards the eye ; tail dusky,
ash colored at its extremity ; legs and feet dusky ash, toes paler,
having a yellowish tinge, webs dusky, claws sharp.

The shafts of the tail feathers of all these specimens, except
that shot in April, projected beyond the webs; in one specimen the
shaft of one of the middle feathers projected an inch, and was
ramified into rigid bristles, resembling those of the tail of BufFon’s
Sarcelle a queue epineuse de Cayenne, PI. Enl. 967; in all the spe-
cimens there was the appearance of the tail feathers having been
furnished with the like process, but which had been rubbed off.
Can it be that this Duck makes use of its tail in climbing up the
fissures of rocks, or the hollows of trees ? Its stiff, narrow feathers,
not unlike those of the tail of a Woodpecker, would favor this sup-
position. It is worthy of note that the tail of Mr. Bonaparte’s fe-
male specimen, alluded to above, is thus rubbed.

The plumage of the neck and breast, which Wilson says is of
a remarkable kind, that is, stiff and bristly at the tips, is common
to several Ducks, and therefore is no peculiarity.

The body of this species is broad, flat and compact; its wings
short and concave; its legs placed far behind; and its feet uncom-
monly large; it consequently is an expert diver. It flies with the
swiftness, and in the manner, of the Buffel-head; and it swims
precisely as Latham I’eports the Ural Duck to swim, with the tail
immersed in the water as far as the rump; but whether it swims
thus low with the view of employing its tail as a rudder, as Latham
asserts of the Ural, or merely to conceal itself from observation,
as the Scaup Duck is wont to do when wounded, and as all the Di-
vers do when pursued, I cannot determine.

This is a solitary bird; and with us we never see more than
five or six together, and then always apart from other Ducks. It
is uncommonly tame, so much so, that, by means of my skiff, I
have never experienced any difficulty in approaching within a few

144

RUDDY DUCK.

yards of it. Its flesh I do not consider superior to that of the Buf-
fel-head, which, with us, is a Duck not highly esteemed.

I should not be surprised if Bufibn’s Sarcelle a queue epineuse
de Cayenne should turn out to be this species. The characters of
the two certainly approximate ; but as I have not been enabled to
settle the question of their identity in my own mind, I shall, for
the present, let the affair rest.

-ty

fi

145

BRANT.

AJVJIS BERNICLJl,

[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 1, Male.~]

Gmel. Syst* I,/?. 513, Ab. 13, — Ind. Orn, p. 844, Ab. 32. Brent^ Gen, Syn. Ill, p. 4,67 1 JSfo,
27. — Le Cravant, Briss. VI, p, 304, 16, pi. 31. — Buff. IX, p, 87. PL Enl. 342, —
Bewick, II, p, 277. — ArcU Zool.No. 478. Br, Zool. No, '2.70. — Willuchby, p. 360. —
Oie Cravant, Temm. Man. d'*0m. p. 824. — Cuv. R^g. An. I, p. 531. — Peale’s Museum,
No. 2704.

THE Brant, or, as it is usually written, Brent, is a bird well
known on both continents, and celebrated in former times through-
out Europe for the singularity of its origin ; and the strange trans-
formations it was supposed to undergo previous to its complete
organization. Its first appearance was said to be in the form of a
barnacle-shell adhering to old water-soaked logs, trees, or other
pieces of wood taken from the sea. Of this Goose-bearmg tree Ge-
rard, in his Herbal, published in 1 597? has given a formal account,
and seems to have reserved it for the conclusion of his work, as
being the most wonderful of all he had to describe. The honest
naturalist however, though his belief was fixed, acknowledges that
his own personal information was derived from certain shells, which
adhered to a rotten tree that he dragged out of the sea between
Dover and Romney in England ; in some of which he found liv-
ing things without forme or shape ; in others which were nearer
come to ripeness, living things that were very naked, in shape like
a birde ; in others the birds covered with soft downe, the shell half
open and the birde readie to fall out, which no doubt were the
foules called Barnakles.”'' Ridiculous and chimerical as this

* See Gerard’s Herbal, Art. Goose-bearing Tree.

2 O

VOL. VIII.

146

BRANT.

notion was, it had many advocates, and was at that time as gene-
rally believed, and with about as much reason too, as the present
opinion of the annual submersion of Swallows, so tenaciously in-
sisted on by some of our philosophers, and which, like the former
absurdity, will in its turn disappear before the penetrating radiance
and calm investigation of truth.

The Brant and Barnacle Goose, though generally reckoned two
different species, I consider to be the same.* Among those large
flocks that arrive on our coasts about the beginning of October,
individuals frequently occur corresponding in their markings with
that called the Barnacle of Europe, that is, in having the upper
parts lighter, and the front, cheeks, and chin whitish. These ap-
pear evidently a variety of the Brant, probably young birds ; what
strengthens this last opinion is the fact, that none of them are found
so marked on their return northward in the spring.

The Brant is expected at Egg-Harbor, on the coast of New
Jersey, about the first of October, and has been sometimes seen as
early as the twentieth of September. The first flocks generally
remain in the bay a few days, and then pass on to the south. On
recommencing their journey, they collect in one large body, and
making an extensive spiral course, some miles in diameter, rise to
a great height in the air, and then steer for the sea, over which
they uniformly travel ; often making wide circuits to avoid pass-
ing over a projecting point of land. In these aerial routes they
have been met with many leagues from shore, travelling the whole
night. Their line of march very much resembles that of the Ca-
nada Goose, with this exception, that frequently three or four are
crowded together in the front, as if striving for precedency. Flocks
continue to arrive from the north, and many remain in the bay till

^ The ridiculous account of the origin of the Barnacle Goose, extracted from the Herbal
of Gerard, we have thought proper to retain for the amusement of the reader ; but it is neces-
sary to state, that the opinion of our author, with respect to the identity of the Brant and Bar-
nacle, is erroneous, these birds forming two distinct species.

BRANT.

147

December, or until the weather becomes very severe, when these
also move off southwardly. During their stay they feed on the
bars at low water, seldom or never in the marshes ; their princi-
pal food being a remarkably long and broad-leaved marine plant,
of a bright green color, which adheres to stones, and is called by
the country people sea-cabbage ; the leaves of this are sometimes
eight or ten inches broad by two or three feet in length ; they also
eat small shell-fish. They wade about feeding at low water. Dur-
ing the time of high water they float in the bay in long lines, par-
ticularly in calm weather. Their voice is hoarse and honking, and
when some hundreds are screaming together, reminds one of a
pack of hounds in full cry. They often quarrel among lliemselves,
and with the Ducks, driving the latter off their feeding ground.
Though it never dives in search of food, yet when wing-broken the
Brant will go one hundred yards at a stretch under water; and is
considered, in such circumstances, one of the most difficiilt birds
to kill. About the fifteenth or twentieth of May they re-appear on
their way north ; but seldom stop long, unless driven in by tem-
pestuous weather.

The breeding place of the Brant is supposed to be very far
to the north. They are common at Hudson’s bay ; very numerous
in winter on the coasts of Holland and Ireland ; are called in Shet-
land Harra Geese, from their frequenting the sound of that name ;
they also visit the coast of England. Buffon relates, that in the
severe winters of 1740 and 1765, during the prevalence of a strong
north wind, the Brant visited the coast of Picardy in France, in
prodigious multitudes, and committed great depredations on the
corn, tearing it up by the roots, trampling and devouring it ; and
notwithstanding the exertions of the inhabitants, who were con-
stantly employed in desU'oying them, they continued in great force
until a change of weather carried them off.

The Brant generally weighs about four pounds avoirdupois,
and measures two feet in length, and three feet six inches in ex-

148

BRANT.

tent ; the bill is about an inch and a half long, and black ; the
nostril large, placed nearly in its middle ; head, neck, and breast,
black, the neck marked with a spot of white, about two inches
below the eye ; belly pale ash edged with white ; from the thighs
backwards white ; back and wing-coverts dusky brownish black,
the plumage lightest at the tips ; rump and middle of the tail-co-
verts black, the rest of the tail-coverts pure white, reaching nearly
to the tip of the tail, the whole of which is black, but usually con-
cealed by the white coverts ; primaries and secondaries deep black ;
legs also black ; irides dark hazel.

The only material diiference observable between the plumage
of the male and female, is, that in the latter the white spot on the
neck is less, and more mottled with dusky. In young birds it is
sometimes wanting, or occurs on the front, cheeks and chin ; and
sometimes the upper part of the neck, only, is black but in full
plumaged birds, of both sexes, the markings are very much alike.

This species is often seen in our markets for sale. Its flesh,
though esteemed by many, tastes somewhat sedgy, or fishy. On
the 28th of May, of the present year, the Editor saw several pairs
of Brant, which had been brought from Little Egg-Harbor. They
were uncommonly fat. One pair, although deprived of their fea-
thers, weighed eight pounds and a half.

The individual figured in the plate was shot by the Editor at
Great Egg-Harbor, on the nineteenth of May, 1813. It had been
compelled to land by a storm, which surprised it while travelling
to the north. The procuring of this bird was a fortunate occur-
rence for Mr. Wilson, he having omitted to make a drawing while
specimens were to be obtained during their sojourn on our coast.
The following day the author and his friend returned home from
their last shooting expedition to the seashore ; and, on the twenty-
third of August, the ingenious and excellent Wilson bade adieu to
this world for ever.

^ The figure of this bird given by Bewick is in that state.

149

SCOTER DUCK.

^JVAS jYIGRJi,

[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 2, Male,']

Gmel. Syst. I, p. 508, Ab. 7.—Ind. Orn. p. 848, Ab. 43. Gen, Syn. III,/;. 480, Ab. 36.—
Black Diver or Scoter, Willuchby, p. 366. — La Macreuse, Briss. VI, p. 420, pi, 38,
fg, 2. — Buff. IX, p. 234, />/. 16. PI. EnL 978. — Bewick, II, /j. 288. — Arct. Zool. No,
484. Br. ZooL Ab. 273. — Temm. Man. dDrn. p. 856. — Cuv. B^g. An. I, p. 532. —
Montagu, Orn. Die, et Sup. — Peale’s Museum, No, 2658; female, 2059.

THIS Duck is but little known along our seacoast, being
more usually met with in the northern than southern districts ;
and only during the winter. Its food is shell-fish, for which it is
almost perpetually diving. That small bivalve so often mention-
ed, small muscles, spout-fish, called on the coast razor handles,
young clams, &c. furnish it with abundant fare ; and wherever
these are plenty the Scoter is an occasional visitor. They swim,
seemingly at ease, amidst the very roughest of the surf; but fly
heavily along the surface, and to no great distance. They rarely
penetrate far up our rivers, but seem to prefer the neighborhood
of the ocean; dilfering in this respect from the Cormorant, which
often makes extensive visits to the interior.

The Scoters are said to appear on the coasts of France in
great numbers, to which they are attracted by a certain kind of
small bivalve shell-fish called vaimeaux, probably differing little
from those already mentioned. Over the beds of these shell-fish
the fishermen spread their nets, supporting them, horizontally, at
the height of two or three feet from the bottom. At the llowing
of the tide the Scoters approach in great numbers, diving after

their favorite food, and soon get entangled in the nets. Twenty

2 F

VOL. VIII.

150

SCOTER DUCK.

or thirty dozen have sometimes been taken in a single tide. These
are sold to the Roman Catholics, who eat them on those days on
which they are forbidden by their religion the use of animal food,
fish excepted ; these birds, and a few others of the same fishy fla-
vor, having been exempted from the interdict, on the supposition
of their being cold blooded, and partaking of the nature of fish.*
The Scoter abounds in Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Russia,
and Siberia. It was also found by Osbeck, between the islands of
Java and St. Paul, Lat. 30 and 34, in the month of June.f

This species is twenty-one inches in length, and thirty-four
in extent, and is easily distinguished from all other Ducks by the
peculiar form of its bill, which has at the base a large elevated
knob, of a red color, divided by a narrow line of yellow, which
spreads over the middle of the upper mandible, reaching nearly
to its extremity, the edges and lower mandible are black ; the eye-
lid is yellow, iris dark hazel ; the whole plumage is black, inclining
to purple on the head and neck ; legs and feet reddish.

The female has little or nothing of the knob on the bill ; her
plumage above a sooty brown, and below of a grayish white.

Bewick.

t Voy. I, p. 120.

151

VELVET DUCK.

jijVAs Fusaa.

[Plate LXXIL — Fig. 3, Male,]

Gmel. S^st. I, /». 507, JVo, 6. — Ind. Orn. p. 848, Ab. 44. Gen, Syiu III,/;. 482, Ab. 37.

La grande Macreuse^ Briss. VI, p, 423, 29. — La double Macreiise^ Bufp. IX, p, 242.
PL Enl. 956. — Arct. Zool. Ab. 482. Br, ZooL JVo. 272, pi. 96, tnale and female. — Be-
wick, II, p. 286. — Montagu, Orn. Die. — Canard double Macreiise^ Temm. Man. c/’Orw.
p. 854. — Cuv. Rig, An, I, p. 533, — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2658, female,

THIS and the preceding are frequently confounded together,
as one and the same species, by our gunners on tlie seacoast. The
present, however, differs in being of greater size ; in having a broad
band of white across the wing ; a spot of the same under the eye ;
and in the structure of its bill. The habits of both are very much
alike ; they visit us only during the winter ; feed entirely on shell-
fish, which they procure by diving; and return to the northern
regions early in spring to breed. They often associate with the
Scoters, and are taken frequently in the same nets with them.
Owing to the rank fishy flavor of its flesh, it is seldom sought after
by our sportsmen, and is very little esteemed.

The Velvet Duck measures twenty-three inches in length, and
two feet nine inches in extent, and weighs more than three pounds;
the bill is broad, a little elevated at the base, where it is black,
the rest red, except the lower mandible, which is of a pale yellow-
ish white, both mandibles edged with black, and deeply toothed ;
irides pale cream ; under the eye is a small spot of white ; general
color of the plumage brownish black, the secondaries excepted,
which are white, forming a broad band across the wing; there are
a few reflections of purple on the upper plumage ; the legs

are

152

VELVET DUCK.

red on the outside, and deep yellow, sprinkled with blackish, on
the inside ; tail short and pointed.

The female is very little less than the male; but differs con-
siderably in its markings. The bill is dusky ; forehead and cheeks
white, under the eye dull brownish ; behind that a large oval spot
of white ; whole upper parts and neck dark brownish drab ; tips
of the plumage lighter; secondaries white; wing quills deep brown;
belly brownish white ; tail hoary bi'own ; the throat is white, mark-
ed with dusky specks ; legs and feet yellow.

Latliam informs us that this species is sometimes seen on the
coast of England, but is not common there; that it inhabits Den-
mark and Russia, and in some parts of Siberia is very common.
It is also found at Kamtschatka, where it is said to breed, going
far inland to lay; the eggs are eight or ten, and white ; the males
depart, and leave the females to remain with the young until they
are able to fly. In the river Ochotska they are so numerous that
a party of natives, consisting of fifty or more, go off in boats and
drive these ducks up the river before them, and when the tide ebbs
fall on them at once, and knock them on the head with clubs, kill-
ing such numbers that each man has twenty or thirty for his share.*

Hist. Kamtschatka, p. 160.

153

HARLEQUIN DUCK.

AjYJIS HISTRIONICJl,

[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 4, Male.'\

Gmel. Syst, I, p, 534, Ao. 35 ; A. minuta^ Id. No. 36, female. — Ind. Orn. p. 849, No. 45.
Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 484; p. fernale. — Dusky and Spotted Duck, Edwards, pi. 99;
Little Drown and JFhite Duck, Id. pi. ISI, female. — Le Canard a Collier de Terre-Aeuve,
Briss. VI, p. 362, No. 14 ; La Sarcellede la Baye de Hudson, Id. p. 469, A'o. female.
— Buff. IX, p. 250 ; La Sarcelle hrune et blanche. Id, p. 287, female. PI. Enl. 798 ; 799,
female. — Arct. Zool. A'o. 490. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 878. — Canard Arlequin, Cuv. Ri:g.
An. I, p. 533,

THIS species is very rare ou the coasts of the middle and
southern states, though not unfrequently found off those of New
England, where it is known by the dignified title of the Lord, pro-
bably from the elegant crescents, and circles of white, which orna-
ment its neck and breast. Though an inhabitant of both conti-
nents, little else is known of its particular manners tlian that it
swims and dives well ; flies swift, and to a great height ; and has
a whistling note. Is said to frequent the small rivulets inland from
Hudson’s bay, where it breeds. The female lays ten white eggs on
the grass j the young are prettily speckled. It is found on the
eastern continent as far south as lake Baikal, and thence to Kamt-
schatka, particularly up the river Ochotska ; and was also met
with at Aoonalashka and Iceland.* At Hudson’s hay it is called
the Fainted Duck, at Newfoundland and along the coast of New
England, the Lord ; it is an active vigorous diver, and often seen
in deep water, considerably out at sea.

Latham.

2 Q.

VOL. VIII.

154

HARLEQUIN DUCK.

The Harlequin Duck, so called from the singularity of its
markings, is seventeen inches in length, and twenty-eight inches
in extent ; the bill is of moderate length, of a lead color tipt with
red, irides dark ; upper part of the head black ; between the eye
and bill a broad space of white, extending over the eye, and end-
ing in reddish ; behind the ear a similar spot ; neck black, ending
below in a circle of white ; breast deep slate, shoulders or sides of
the breast, marked with a semicircle of white ; belly black ; sides
chestnut ; body above black or deep slate, some of the scapulars
white; greater wing-coverts tipt with the same; legs and feet deep
ash ; vent and pointed tail black.

The female is described as being less, “ the forehead, and
between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the same behind
the ear ; head, neck, and back, brown, palest on the forepart of
the neck ; upper part of the breast, and rump, red brown ; lower
breast and belly barred pale rufous and white ; behind the thighs
rufous and brown ; scapulars and wing-coverts rufous brown ; outer
greater ones blackish ; quills and tail dusky, the last inclining to
rufous ; legs dusky.”*

The few specimens of this Duck which I have met with, were
all males ; and from the variation in their colors it appears evi-
dent that the young birds undergo a considerable change of plu-
mage before they arrive at their full colors. In some the white
spot behind the eye was large, extending irregularly half way
down the neck ; in others confined to a roundish spot.

The flesh of this species is said to be excellent.

^ Latham.

155

BLACK DUCK.''

JljYJlS OBSCURJl.

[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 5, Male.]

Gmel. Syst. I, p, 541, No. 115. — Ind. Om. p. 871, Ab. 96. Dusky Duck^ Gen. Syn. Ill, p.
545, 84, Arct. Zool. No. 496. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2880 ; female^ 2889.

THIS species, called by naturalists Dusky Duck, is generally
known in Pennsylvania, and along the seacoast of New Jersey, and
the neighboring country, by the name of the Black Duck, being
the most common and most numerous of all those of its tribe
that frequent the salt marshes. It is only partially migratory.
Numbers of them remain during the summer, and breed in se-
questered places in the marsh, or on the sea islands of the beach.
The eggs are eight or ten in number, very nearly resembling those
of the domestic duck. Vast numbers, however, regularly migrate
farther north on the approach of spring. During their residence
here in winter they frequent the marshes, and the various creeks
and inlets with which those extensive flats are intersected. Their
principal food consists of those minute snail-shells so abundant in
the marshes. They occasionally visit the sandy beach in search
of small bivalves, and on these occasions sometimes cover whole
acres with their numbers. They roost at night in the shallow
ponds, in the middle of the salt marsh, particularly on islands,
where many are caught by the foxes. They arc extremely shy
during the day j and on the most distant report of a musket, lise
from every quarter of the marsh in prodigious numbers, dispersing
in every direction. In calm weather they fly high, beyond the

* Named in the plate Dusky Duck.

156

BLACK DUCK.

reach of shot; but when the wind blows hard, and the gunner con-
ceals himself among the salt grass in a place over which they
usually fly, they are shot down in great numbers ; their flight be-
ing then low. Geese, Brant, and Black Ducks are the common
game of all our gunners along this part of the coast during win-
ter ; but tliere are at least ten Black Ducks for one Goose or Brant,
and probably many more. Their voice resembles that of the Mal-
lard ; but their flesh is greatly inferior, owing to the nature of
their food. They are, however, large, heavy-bodied Ducks, and
generally esteemed.

I cannot discover that this species is found in any of the re-
mote northern parts of our continent ; and this is probably the
cause why it is altogether unknown in Europe. It is abundant
from Virginia to New England; but is not enumerated among the
birds of Hudson’s bay, or Greenland. In Georgia and Florida it
is very rare.* Its chief residence is on the seacoast, though it
it also makes extensive excursions up the tide waters of our rivers.
Like the Mallai’d they rarely dive for food, but swim and fly with
great velocity.

The Dusky or Black Duck is two feet in length, and three
feet two inches in extent; the bill is of a dark greenish ash, form-
ed very much like that of the Mallard, and nearly of the same
length; irides dark; upper part of the head deep dusky brown, in-
termixed on the forepart with some small streaks of drab ; rest of
the head, and greater part of the neck, pale yellow ochre, thickly
marked with small streaks of blackish brown; lower part of the
neck, and whole lower parts, deep dusky, each feather edged with
brownish white, and with fine seams of rusty white; upper parts
the same, but rather deeper ; the outer vanes of nine of the se-
condaries bright violet blue, forming the beauty spot, which is

* During a winter spent among the sea islands of Georgia, and in East Florida, the Edi-
tor saw but one individual of this Duck : a proof of its rarity*.

BLACK DUCK.

157

bounded on all sides by black ; wings and tail sooty brown ; tail
feathers sharp pointed ; legs and feet dusky yellow ; lining of the
wings pure white.

The female has more brown on her plumage ; but in other
respects differs little from the male, both having the beauty spot
on the wing.

Of all our Ducks this species is perhaps the most sagacious,
and the most fearful of man. In the neighborhood of Philadel-
phia they are found in great numbers ; they are notwithstanding
hard to be obtained, in consequence of their extreme vigilance, and
their peculiar habits. During the day they chiefly abandon the
marshes ; and float in considerable bodies on the Delaware, taking
their repose, with the usual precaution of employing wakeful sen-
tinels, to give notice of danger. In the evening they resort to the
muddy flats and shores, and occupy themselves throughout the
greater part of the night in seeking for food. When searching
out their feeding grounds, every individual is on the alert ; and on
the slightest appearance of an enemy the whole mount and scatter
in such a manner, that, in a flock of a hundred, it would be diffi-
cult to knock down more than two or three at one shot. Their
sense of smelling is uncommonly acute; and their ejesight, if
we may judge from their activity at night, must be better than
that of most species. When wounded on the water, they wdl im-
mediately take to the shore, if in the vicinity, and conceal them-
selves under the first covert, so that one accustomed to this habit
can have no difficulty in finding them.

VOI.. VIII.

2 R

B. t'i P:LiU..dtt

1 ^ fi.^

jifyi fr h, ^ •$ -ifi ■ If CondU’

158

MARSH TERN.

STEBJVJ] JIBJIJVEJI.

[Plate LXXII.— Fig. 6.]

Veale's Museumy Ab. 3521.

THIS new species I fii-st met with on the shores of Cape May,
particularly over the salt marshes, and darting down after a kind
of large black spider, plenty in such places. This spider can
travel under water as well as above, and, during summer at least,
seems to constitute the principal food of the present Tern. In se-
veral which I opened, the stomach was crammed with a mass of
these spiders alone; these they frequently pick up from the pools
as well as from the grass, dashing down on them in the manner
of their tribe. Their voice is sharper and stronger than that of
the Common Tern; the bill is differently formed, being shorter,
more rounded above, and thicker ; the tail is also much shorter,
and less forked. They do not associate with the others ; but keep
in small parties by themselves.

The Marsh Tern is fourteen inches in length, and thirty-four
111 extent ; bill thick, much rounded above, and of a glossy black-
ness ; whole upper part of the head, and hind neck, black ; whole
upper part of the body hoary white ; shafts of the quill and tail
feathers pure white ; line from the nosti-il under the eye, and whole
lower parts pure white ; tail forked, the outer feathers about an
inch and three quarters longer than the middle ones ; the wings
extend upwards of two inches beyond the tail ; legs and feet black,
hind toe small, straight, and pointed.

MARSH TERN.

159

The female, as to plumage, differs iu nothing from the male.
The yearling birds, several of which I met with, have the plumage
of the crown white at the surface, but dusky below' ; so that the
boundaries of the black, as it will be in the perfect bird, arc clearly
defined ; through the eye a line of black passes down the neck for
about an inch, reaching about a quarter of an inch before it ; the
bill is not so black as in the others ; the legs and feet dull orange,
smutted with brown or dusky ; tips and edges of the pi’imarics
blackish ; shafts white.

This species breeds in the salt marshes, the female drops her
eggs, generally three or four in number, on the dry drift grass,
without the slightest appearance of a nest ; they arc of a greenish
olive, spotted with brown.

A specimen of this Tern has been deposited in the Museum
of this city.

M. Temminck having referred this species to the Gull-billed
Tei’n, S, Jlnglica, of Montagu, the Editor w^as induced to inquire at
Peale’s Museum for the specimen mentioned above, but he had the
mortification to learn that it was not to be found. Rut having been
more fortunate in obtaining access to the original sketch of the
Marsh Tern, of the size of nature, he will give his reasons for dis-
senting from the judgment of M. Temminck. Montagu says tliat
the Jl7igUcah bill is not above an inch and a half long; now the
bill of our drawing is an inch and seven eighths to the corner of the
mouth, and a full inch and a quarter to the plumage of the fore-
head, consequently of a medium length. As the latter dcsci'ibes
the bill of his, so is that of ours, thick, strong, and angulated on
the under mandible, like that of a Gull. Temminck gives the
length of the tarsus of the Jlnglica as one inch three or four lines ;
the tarsus of our drawing is one inch and an eighth, English ;
Montagu states that the legs of his Tern rather exceed two inches
in length from the heel to the knee. If these admeasurements of

160

MARSH TERN.

the latter be correct, we are led to conclude that our Marsh Tern
is specifically distinct from his Gull-billed Tern. However, with
our present slender means of information, we do not consider our-
selves authorized to change the name.

161

SOOTY TERN.

STERKA FULIGLYOSA.

[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 7.]

Gmel. Syst, I, p. 605, No. 11. — Ind. Om. p. 804, Ab. 4. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 352, No. 4.

V Hirondelle de Mer a grande envergurcy Buff. VIII, p. 345. — Egg-bird^ Forst. Eoy. I,
p. 113.— Noddy, Damp. Voy. Ill, />. U%—Arct. Zool. No, 447— Peale’s Museum, No.
3459.

THIS bird has been long known to navigators, as its appear-
ance at sea usually indicates the vicinity of land ; instances, how-
ever, have occurred in which they have been met with one hundred
leagues from shore. The species is widely dispersed over the va-
rious shores of the ocean. They were seen by Danipier in New
Holland ; are in prodigious numbers in the Island of Ascension \
and in Christmas Island are said to lay, in December, one egg on
the ground ; the egg is yellowish, with brown and violet spots.
In passing along the northern shores of Cuba, and the coast of
Florida and Georgia, in the month of July, I observed this species
very numerous and noisy, dashing down headlong after small fish.
I shot and dissected several, and found their stomachs uniformly
filled with fish. I could perceive little or no difference between
the colors of the male and female.

Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet
six inches ; bill glossy black, an inch and a half long, sharp point-
ed, and rounded above, the upper mandible serrated slightly near
the point ; nostril an oblong slit ; irides dusky ; forehead as far
as the eyes white ; whole lower parts, and sides of the neck, pure

* Cook, Voy. I, p. 275.

VOL. VIII. ^ ^

162

SOOTY TERN.

white ; rest of the plumage black ; wings very long and pointed,
extending, when shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is
greatly forked, and consists of twelve feathers, the two exterior
ones four inches longer than those of the middle, the whole of a
deep black, except the two outer feathers, which are white, but to-
wards the extremities a little blackish on the inner vanes ; legs and
feet black, hind toe short.

The secondary wing feathers are eight inches shorter than
the longest primary.

This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea,
and, in common with another species, S, Stolida, is called by
sailors the Noddy.

END OF THE EIGHTH VOLUME.

L*| 4 | V

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♦t* >tftvi run(itini»> 14^' .'

14*«,ife'i*|fi i'wiiv* ,-4}, !

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_ .lUESDAY,^ NOYEMBEB 16, 1886^ j

ANIMAL AND VKUBIABLE LIKE.

souif Iiitei estlnjr Facii Uelftiiupr Thcrrto

Inu rnrnisUvd b) NntiirnlUt ItuuJ.

I

A geiilknian of this jdafe, who roecsntly
rohiincd from a tlirtc days* stay at th? far-
t'Hiuc d duching gruiuids of Hiivre-dc-Grnoe,
Maiylaiul. presentod to a represeutative oi,
the Local News a specimen of nu amiatiot
plant which be culled “Wild Celery,” aud also'
added, “ihia Tegetftblc iirndnet is th(» chief
food-stulT of the canvas-backed and red-
headed dock at Havrc-de-Gi'ftce. Yes!— throe
' of 118 in two days shot over two hiiudreil
■ ducks. Canvas-backii wore scarce. We
seemed but three, the remainder being red-
. iieads. As nnmerons opinions are ontortainsd
by sportsmen and others as to the identity of
Dm plant, which is s&id to be so important an
item in the dietary of these two familiar
species of ducks, your reporter took occowon
to visit our townsman Mr. Benj. M, Everhart, ^
a gentleman whose personal field wort and *
numerous wiitiugs have justly earned f6r him '
a reputation as one of the foremost botanical ,
ttUtliorities in this country.

sir. Everliart after exiiminiug the “Wild!
Celery** kindly furnished from vatious sources
the foilowing'factsrelative to the same : !

This plant like many others has a variety
of local names. Borne of the most common ‘
which I now call to mind are tape-grass,
from the tapo-like appearance of the long
leaves ; chftnnel-weed, as it frequently grows
in channels where the water flows, nofe..
swiftly ; eel-grass'; this name arises, it is saiili i
hy Dr. Darlington (_Flora Oosirica); “from thol ,
habit which eels have of hiding under thoi j

tbi^x, only by gunners and watermen at
Havrc-de-Grace and vicinity — is, I conrfder,!
like many vulgar fynonynis, a misnomer, as'
tliis plant is in no particular related to celery/.

X,. w... region from which your specimen
jtaineO. It is found in the Brandywiuo
creek growing in slow running water.

The ficientiflu name of the plant is VaUis->
niria spiralis (Linn), the generic name being
given in honor of Afttouio VeuHsneri, an Ital-
ian botanisMhe specific spiralis is applied in
' conseqiK-ncG of the fact that- the fertile stallc
in its development assumeB>*ftfe5^l form. It
is a remarkable dioocioufl^ herbaceous plant
on account of its mode of 'Jertilization. It
grows entirely under water, has long radical
gmaa-like leaves, fi-om 1 to 3 feet long and
ifrom to 5^ inch wide. The female flowers
float on the surface at the end of long thread-
scapes, which curiously contract
toTO ^nt^tlflfcr-^th the rise and fall of t^a
The male flowers have very shove
stems pvsrapcs. from which the flowers break
yffltMd rise to the surface, to fertilize With
[iSRr pollen the attached, floating female
pfon’ors.

• 3’bc leavea of this plant fonii au exceedingly
beautiful object for microscopic study, the
I extreme tenuity and transparency of their
! cellular tissue allowing the observer to watch
the movement of the fluid contents of tha
cells,

CANVAS-BACKED DUCKS.

Audubon, writing of the food of the can-
vass-back duck, says: “lb varies according to
the season and locality. The plant raih'snsria,

: on which it is said to feed when on the head
waters of the Chesapeake, is nob found
' equally abundant in other parts and oven
there is at times so reduced in quantity that
this duck and several other species which ara
equally fond of it are obliged to have recourse
to fishes, tadpoles, water-lizards, leeches, snaila
and moliusca, as well ns such seeds as they can
meet with, all of whioh have been in greater
or leas quantity found in tJieir stomach."

' Wilflon, referring to the canvas-back duolw,
says: ‘iTbey are found in that part of fresh
tide water where a certain giass-like p^ufc
grows, on the roots of which they feed,
i* * The shores are lined ivltb largo quanti-
ties of it torn up hytlie ducks and drifted up
' by the winds, lying-like bay in wind-rows. On
' the aniviil of these birds near Havie-<le-Grac0
tli^y tiro cchgvhIIy . Icaiii but such i8 the
abimanneo of their favorite food that towards
Die beginning of November they aie in pretty
good order. They dive after the gvass, tear it
up and eat onlij tho roots. In the severe ivm-
ter of 1779-30 the VaUisnena was almost
w holly destroyed in James River. In the
mouth of January tjie wind continued to blow
from west-norlhweat for twenty-one days,
which caused such low tides in the river that
the duck grass froze to the ice everywheie,and a
thaw coming oii suddenly the whole was raised
bv the roots and carried off by the freshet.
a;bo next winter a few of these ducks were
Sfcu but they soon went away again, and for
nianv years after they continued to be scarce.

* THE BED-irBADED DUCK.

Wilson savs this species is a common associ-
ate of the Canvas-back, frequenting the same
places and feeding on the stems of the wild

'^'^Au^nhnn in liis writings on tho Red-headed
duck stalls: *1 have found their stomach
orammed with vomig tadpoles audsmaU water-
lizards, as wcU as blades of the grosses grow-
ing around the banks. Nay. ou several oc-
caaioms, I have found pretty large acorns and
Ibeech-imtsuitbeirthroata, as well as snails,

Entire or broken, and fragments of the sliells

* of various email nnios, together with miicU
j|;raveL"