. Animals in menageries. ly are white: the flanks andabdomen are spotted with brown. The young malebirds, so soon as they begin to throw off the dress of thefemale, at the beginning of winter, are stated to havethe white throat; white intermixed with some darkfeathers ; the white eye-band, spotted with brov;n ; andother indications of the male sex. It is really surprising, that such an acute observer asMontagu should have placed this bird as a variety ofthe common teal; an error which renders all he has saidof the manners of the two species, as thrown into one,perfectly useless. The Beautiful
. Animals in menageries. ly are white: the flanks andabdomen are spotted with brown. The young malebirds, so soon as they begin to throw off the dress of thefemale, at the beginning of winter, are stated to havethe white throat; white intermixed with some darkfeathers ; the white eye-band, spotted with brov;n ; andother indications of the male sex. It is really surprising, that such an acute observer asMontagu should have placed this bird as a variety ofthe common teal; an error which renders all he has saidof the manners of the two species, as thrown into one,perfectly useless. The Beautiful Duck. Boschas formosa, Sw. (Fig. 38.) Sides of the head pale buff: chin, and band from thenceto the eye, velvet-black : sides of the neck with agreen stripe, ending in black, and bordered by white :crown black, margined by a white line. Anas formosa, Baikal Teal, Lath. Synop. vi. introduce the description of this most elegant bird, to stimidate the efforts of our collectors to effect its intro- BEAUTIFUL DUCK. 247. duction into this country. We were favoured with aninspection of very perfect skins of the male and female,some years ago, by J. E. Gray, Esq.; and we executedfigures of them for one of that gentlemans unpublishedworks ; but these still remain unavailable to science ; andas there are several inaccuracies in the only descriptionof this bird that has yet been give» to the world, weshall here insert our own. Mr. Grays specimens, if weremember right, came from China. But as Dr. Lathamsays it is found in Russia, about the Lake Baikal, therecan be but little doubt of its living in this country, ifproperly protected against the severe cold of our whatever is known of its manners. The size of this lovely bird is equal to that of thecommon teal; and the structure, with some few excep-tions, is similar: the bill is equally high at the base,but considerably narrower: the tad is much longer,and exceeds the under tail covers by a full inch ; where-as, in B
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrichmondch, bookcentury1800, booksubjectanimalbehavior
