The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the county of Warwick Esq, fellow of the Royal Society in three books : wherein all the birds hitherto known, being reduced into a method sutable to their natures, are accurately described : the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures, nearly resembling the live birds, engraven in LXXVII copper plates : translated into English, and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole work : to which are added, Three considerable discourses, I. of the art of fowling, with a description of several nets in two large copper plates, II. of the ordering of singing birds, III. of falconry / by John Ray ...

§. VII. The Garganey: Querquedula prima Aldrov. t. 3. p. 209. Kernel at Strasburgh.

IN bigness it something exceeds the common Teal; yet that Mr. Willughby described weighed no more than the common Teal. viz. twelve ounces. Its length from Bill to Claws was seventeen inches: Its breadth from tip to tip of the Wings ex∣tended twenty eight. For the shape of its body it was very like to the common Teal: Its Bill also black: Its Legs and Feet livid with a certain mixture of green, [Mr. Wil∣lughby hath it from dusky inclining to a lead-colour.] The back-toe small.

The crown of the Head is almost wholly black, but the Bill besprinkled with small reddish-white specks. From the inner corner of the Eye on each side begins a broad white line, which passing above the Eyes and Ears is produced to the back of the Head, till they do almost meet. The Cheeks beneath these white lines and the be∣ginning of the Throat were of a lovely red colour, as if dashed with red wine, ha∣ving white spots or lines along the middle of each feather about their shafts. Under the Chin at the rise of the lower Mandible is a great black spot. The whole Breast is curiously varied with black and dusty, transverse, arcuate [elliptical] waved lines in each feather. The Belly in some is white, in others tinctured with yellow: But

toward the Vent are brown lines, and bigger spots under the Tail. The colour of the Back is brown, with a purplish gloss. The Thighs are covered with feathers handsomly variegated with transverse black and white lines. The scapular feathers next the Wings are ash-coloured, the rest are of a very beautiful purple colour, with white lines in the middle.

Each Wing hath twenty five quils, the outmost ten of which are brown on the out∣side the shaft, on the inside of a Mouse-dun: The eleven next have white tips, be∣neath the tips, as far as they appear beyond the covert-feathers, their exteriour Webs of a shining green, the interiour and the bottoms of the feathers being of a dusk or Mouse-dun. The rest are brown, only the exteriour Webs edged with white. The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are ash-coloured excepting those immediately incumbent on the quils, some of which have white tips.

The Tail is short [three inches] and when closed ending in a sharp point, of a dusky or dark brown colour, consisting of fourteen feathers; the outmost feathers are varied with spots of a pale or whitish red. The soal of the foot is black.

The Cock had a Labyrinth at the divarication of the Wind-pipe, the Hen none.

The Hen is less than the Cock, and duller-coloured, wants the black spot under the Chin, and the red colour of the Cheeks. The Wings underneath are as in the Cock, above more brown. The Back coloured like the Cocks; but the scapular fea∣thers have not those beautiful colours.

Notes

• Mr. Willughby describes them to be of a purplish co∣lour, with a mixture of cinereous.