. Cassell's book of birds . rown on the brow and cheeks; the back of head, nape, and sides of the neck are bright reddishbrown ; the sides of the breast and the back reddish olive, darkly spotted and marked ; the long lowershoulder-feathers are olive-brown edged with yellowish white ; the lower back, centre of tail, andentire under side below the breast are black; the sides of the body are greyish white, striped with THE SWIMMERS. 149 blackish brown; the upper wing-covers are bright reddish brown ; secondary quills olive-brown, withgreen edges, and the quills and tail-feathers greenish black;
. Cassell's book of birds . rown on the brow and cheeks; the back of head, nape, and sides of the neck are bright reddishbrown ; the sides of the breast and the back reddish olive, darkly spotted and marked ; the long lowershoulder-feathers are olive-brown edged with yellowish white ; the lower back, centre of tail, andentire under side below the breast are black; the sides of the body are greyish white, striped with THE SWIMMERS. 149 blackish brown; the upper wing-covers are bright reddish brown ; secondary quills olive-brown, withgreen edges, and the quills and tail-feathers greenish black; the eye is reddish brown, beak black,with a dark grey stripe near its nail-like tip; the foot is lead-grey. This species is eighteen incheslong and thirty-two inches broad; the wing measures eight inches and three-quarters, the tail twoinches and two-thirds. The female closely resembles her mate. All travellers who have visited SouthAmerica describe this bird as occurring in amazing multitudes, more especially in the marshy. the widow duck {Dendrocygna viduata). ONE-FOURTH NATURAL size. grounds of the prairies; and travellers in Africa assert that it is equally abundant in the southern <mdwestern regions of that continent. Upon the Upper Blue Nile we have ourselves several times metwith it in extraordinarily large flocks, which, in closely-packed ranks, covered the banks of theriver to a great distance, and when they rose into the air had the appearance of a dense states that the males and females of these birds remain constantly separate from eachother; such a statement, however, we can positively contradict, seeing that we have killed individualsof both sexes at a single shot. We are by no means well informed as to the history of these birds,and about their mode of breeding we know little or nothing certainly. The Widow Duck is 150 cassells book of birds. distinguishable among its congeners by a gait which sometimes resembles that of a Goose, as also bythe he
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbreh, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
