back, she swims with them a few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the water! 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.

269. ANAS NIGRA, LINNÆUS AND WILSON.SCOTER DUCK. WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. II. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM.

Its

THIS duck is but little known along our sea coast, being more usually met with in the northern than southern districts, and only during the winter. food is shell fish, for which it is almost perpetually diving. That small bivalve so often mentioned, 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 neighbourhood of the ocean, differing 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 flowing of the tide the scoters approach in great numbers, diving after their favourite food, and soon get entangled in the nets. Twenty 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 flavour, 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. †

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 colour, 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 eyelid is yellow; irides, 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.

270. ANAS FUSCA, LINNÆUS AND WILSON. —VELVET DUCK.

WILSON, PLATE LXXII. FIG. III. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM.

THIS and the preceding are frequently confounded together as one and the same species by our gunners on the sea coast. The former, 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 flavour of its flesh, it is seldom sought after by our sportsmen or gunners, and is very little esteemed.

* BEWICK.

+ Voyage, i. p. 120.

The velvet duck measures twenty-three inches in length, and two feet nine inches in extent, and weighs about 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 yellowish white; both are edged with black, and deeply toothed; irides, pale cream; under the eye is a small spot of white; general colour 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 red on the outside, and deep yellow, sprinkled with blackish, on the inner sides; tail, short and pointed.

The female is very little less than the male; but differs considerably 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 brown; the throat is white, marked with dusky specks; legs and feet, yellow.

Latham informs us, that this species is sometimes seen on the coast of England, but is not common there; that it inhabits Denmark 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, killing such numbers that each man has twenty or thirty for his share.*

* History of Kamtschatka, p. 160.

271. ANAS PERSPICILLATA, LINNEUS AND WILSON.

BLACK, OR SURF DUCK.

WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. I.

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, both in the sandy bays and amidst the tumbling surf. 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 are remarkably strong, and their flesh coarse, tasting of fish. They 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 colour; 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; irides, white, or very pale cream; whole plumage, a shining black, marked on the crown and hindhead 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 webbed 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 convex 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 female is altogether of a sooty brown, lightest about the neck; the prominences on the bill are scarcely observable, and its colour dusky.

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

272. ANAS RUBIDUS, WILSON.—RUDDY DUCK.

WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. V. MALE.

THE specimen from which this very rare duck was described was shot some years ago, on the river Delaware, and appears to be an entire new species. The female, described in the next article, was killed in the same river; and they are the only individuals of their kind I have met with. They are both preserved in the superb museum of my much respected friend, Mr Peale, of this city.

On comparing this duck with the description 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 colour; 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 single individual of the present kind having been found among them.