. A history of British birds . in the collection of Mr. F. Bond, isbelieved by that veteran ornithologist, and by other com-petent naturalists, to be a hybrid between the Scaup and thePochard; but whatever it may be, it is certainly not theAmerican Scaup. The illustration of this specimen is givenon the following page. In the adult male the bill is pale blue ; in form, narrowestat the base, dilated considerably towards the point, being 428 ANATID^. nearly one-third wider; the nail curved and black; theirides yellow ; the head and the neck all round, as well asthe upper part of the breast and b
. A history of British birds . in the collection of Mr. F. Bond, isbelieved by that veteran ornithologist, and by other com-petent naturalists, to be a hybrid between the Scaup and thePochard; but whatever it may be, it is certainly not theAmerican Scaup. The illustration of this specimen is givenon the following page. In the adult male the bill is pale blue ; in form, narrowestat the base, dilated considerably towards the point, being 428 ANATID^. nearly one-third wider; the nail curved and black; theirides yellow ; the head and the neck all round, as well asthe upper part of the breast and back, black; the cheeksand sides of the neck glossed with rich green ; the rest ofthe back and the scapulars spotted and striped with broadishblack lines, on a ground of white, with considerable inter-vals between the lines; the wing-coverts of much darkergrey than the back; the wing-primaries brownish-black; thesecondaries white, forming the speculum, but tipped withblack ; tertials as dark a grey as the smaller wing-coverts ;. rump and upper tail-coverts black; tail-feathers brownish-black ; breast, sides below the wing, and the flanks purewhite; the portion of the belly behind the legs marked withgreyish lines, on a ground of white ; under tail-covertsblack ; legs and toes bluish-black, the intervening mem-branes darker. The whole length is eighteen inches. Fromthe carpal joint to the end of the wing nine inches; thefirst and second quill-feathers very nearly equal in length,but the first rather the longer of the two. SCAUP DUCK. 429 In the female, which is so different in appearance as tohave been described as a distinct species under the name ofthe White-faced Duck, the head and neck are of a dark browncolour ; the beak lead-colour; around the base of the beakin old females, a broad band of white ; the lower part ofthe neck and breast dark brown; the back and scapularslight grey, transversely barred with irregular dusky lines ;the greater quill-feathers dark brown; the seco
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
