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 ...

CHAP. III. Pond-Ducks, frequenting chiefly fresh waters.

§. I. The common wild Duck and Mallard: Boscas major; Anas torquata minor * 1.1 Aldrov.

IT weighs from thirty six to forty ounces; being about twenty three inches long, measuring from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail. The Wings stretcht out reacht thirty five inches. The Bill is of a greenish yellow, from the angles of the mouth produced two inches and an half, of about an inch breadth, not very flat. The upper Mandible hath at the end a round tip or nail, such as is seen in most Birds of this kind. The lower Eye-lids are white: The Legs and Feet of a Saffron∣colour; the Claws brown; but that of the back-toe almost white: The inmost fore∣toe is the least. The membranes connecting the Toes are of a more sordid colour than the Toes. The Wind-pipe at its divarication hath a vessel we call a labyrinth.

The Legs are feathered down to the Knees. In the Mallard the Head and upper part of the Neck are of a delicate shining green: then follows a ring of white, which yet fails of being an entire circle, not coming round behind. From the white ring the Throat is of a Chesnut colour down to the Breast. The Breast it self and Belly are of a white ash-colour, bedewed or sprinkled with innumerable dark specks, as it were small drops. Under the Tail the feathers are black. The upper side of the Neck from cinereous is red, sprinkled in like manner with spots. The middle of the Back between the Wings is red, the lower part black, and still deeper on the Rump, with a gloss of purple. Thesides under the Wings, and the longer feathers on the Thighs are adorned with transverse brown lines, making a very fair shew. In them the white colour seems to have a mixture of blue.

The lesser rows of Wing-feathers are red: The long scapular feathers are silver∣coloured, elegantly variegated with transverse * 1.2 brown lines. In each Wing are twenty four quils, the outmost ten of a dusky or dark brown: The second decad have white tips, then their outer Webs are of a shining purplish blue colour: But between the white and blue intercedes a border of black. The tip of the twenty first is white, the exteriour Web of a dark purple: The middle part of the twenty second is a little silver-coloured: The twenty third is wholly of a silver-colour, yet the edges on each side are black: The twenty fourth is likewise of a silver-colour, only the exteriour border black. The outmost covert-feathers are of the same colour with the quils; but those immediately incumbent on the purple-blue quils have black tips, and next the tips a broad line or cross bar of white, so that the blue spot is ter∣minated with a double line, first black, and above that white. The Tail hath twen∣ty feathers, ending in sharp points. The four middle of these are reflected circularly toward the Head, being black, with a gloss of purple. The eight next to these on each side are white, especially the outer ones, and on their exteriour Webs, the nearer to the reflected ones, the greater mixture of brown have they. The covert-feathers of the inside of the Wing, and the interiour bastard Wing are white.

In Winter time they company together, and fly in flocks; in the Summer by pairs, Duck and Mallard together. They build their Nests among Heath or Rushes, not far from the water, seldom in trees; laying twelve, fourteen, or more Eggs before they sit. The Female or Duck hath neither green head, nor ringed Neck, but both particoloured of white, brown, and dark red. The middle parts of the Back-fea∣thers are of a dark brown, the edges of a pale red.

As for the great Ring-Duck of Gesner, he being very brief in describing of it, and using only general notes, and my self having never seen any such bird, I know not what to make of it, and do doubt whether there be any such Bird in nature; especi∣ally because the description he brings of it, made by a certain German, doth in all things answer to our Mallard above described.

In the Fens in the Isle of Ely, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, about Crowland, and else∣where, Ducks, Wigeons, Teal, and other birds of this kind, at what time they moult their feathers and cannot fly, are taken yearly in great numbers in Nets placed after this manner.

[illustration]

AB, CD are Nets extending a great length in form of a wall or hedge, inclining one to another, at the further end of which, before they concur in an angle are placed 1, 2, 3, or more conoideal Nets, like tunnelling Nets for Partridges. Which things being so prepared, and the day for fowling set, there is a great concourse of men and boats. These drive the Birds, now unable to fly, into the grounds enclosed in the Nets with long Staves and Poles, and so by degrees into those Conoideal Tunnels, 1, 2, 3, disposed, as we said in the angle. By the way many are knocked down by the Boatmen and other Rabble with their Poles, others and more are driven upon the side Nets AB, CD. These belong to them who own the Nets (for the Nets for the most part have several owners) those fall to their shares that killed them. Those which are cooped up, and driven into the end-tunnels 1, 2, 3, belong to the Lord of the Soil. To one Fowling sometimes you shall have four hundred Boats meet. We have heard that there have been four thousand Mallards taken at one driving in Deeping Fen.

The Mallards change their feathers (we call it Moulting, a word derived from the Latine, muto, signifying to change) when the Hens begin to sit; the Ducks not be∣fore their young ones are grown up and ready to fly, at what time they come hither for that purpose, viz. the Mallards about the end of May, the Ducks not before the end of June, when the Mallards have recovered their feathers and begin to fly again. The Cock-Teal and Wigeons accompany the Ducks, and moult together with them. The Hens of these Birds moult something later. So that this kind of sport or (if you please) exercise lasts from the middle of June till the end of August. In a Weeks time all the old feathers fall off; the new ones come not to their full growth in less than three Weeks space. When they begin to moult they are all very fat and fleshy; but before their feathers be perfectly grown, they become lean. The Ducks and Mal∣lard are called whole fowl; the Wigeons and Teal half fowl, because they are sold for half the price of the other.

Here it may be worth the while to enquire, why Birds do yearly moult their fea∣thers? Mr. Willughby supposes that there is the same cause of the casting the feathers in Birds, that there is of the falling off of the hair in Men and other Animals upon recovery from a Fever or other disease, or upon refection after long abstinence. For in Cock-birds the heat and turgency of lust, is, as it were, a kind of Fever, and so in the Spring-time their bodies being exhausted by the frequent use of Venery, they be∣come lean: But in the Hens the time of sitting and bringing up their Young answers to a disease or long abstinence, for at that time they macerate themselves by hunger and continual labour. When these times are over, both Sexes returning to mind their own bodies and feed for themselves, do in a short time recover their flesh and grow fat again, whereupon the pores of the skin being dilated the feathers fall off.

Our Country-men (imitating, as I suppose, the Low Dutch, who were Authors of the invention) in maritime and fenny places, in Pools prepared by a new Artifice and fitted with their Channels and Nets, and stored with Coy-Ducks, take yearly in, the Winter-time Duck and Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, and other Birds of the Duck-kind in great numbers.

A place is to be chosen for this purpose far remote from common High-ways, and all noise of people, and in which those Birds are wont in great numbers to frequent. Having pitch'd upon a convenient place, prepare a large Pool A, set round with Willows and Reeds. On the South side N, or

[illustration]

the North side S of this Pool draw as many Ditches or Channels 1 1 1 (Pipes they call them) as you please or think needful; let them be broad at the Pool, and by degrees narrower till they end in a point. Along these Channels on each side at little distances thrust into the banks rods or wands of wood, and bending them over-head bind them two together by pairs all along in form of an Arch or Vault from the beginning of the Channel to the end. As the Channels grow nar∣rower and narrower so the bows are made lower and lower. The Poles thus bent in fashion of Bows are to be covered with Nets cast over them, and so the Pipes are made: These Arches or Vaults end in long Cylindrical Nets kept stretcht by hoops like bow-nets, that end which respects the Arch being open, the other shut. Along the banks of the Pipes are made many hedges or walls n n n of Reeds woven thick toge∣ther, parallel to each other, but standing obliquely to the Bank, the acute angles re∣specting the Pool, and along the bank of the Pool, at the exit of the Pipes is likewise a

hedge of Reeds (l m) to be drawn. The Coy-Ducks are to be fed at the mouth or entrance of the Pipes, and to be accustomed at a token given them by a whistle to ha∣sten to the Fowler. The Fowler first walks about the Pool, and observes into what Pipe the Birds gathered together in the Pool may most conveniently be enticed and driven, and then casting Hemp-seed, or some such like thing at the entrance thereof, calls his Coy-ducks together by a whistle. The wild fowl accompany them, and when the Fowler perceives them now entred into the Pipe, he shews himself behind them through the interstices of the hedges n, n, n, which being frightned, and not daring to return back upon the man, swim on further into the Pipe, then by other interstices the Fowler shews himself again behind them, till at last he hath thus driven them into the Cylindrical Nets. If any Birds rise and endeavour to fly away, being beaten back by the Nets spread over the Pipe they fall down again into the Channel. The whole art consists in this, that the Birds within the Pipes may see the Fowler, those in the Pool not seeing him. So those only seeing him, these notwithstanding often enter the Pipes, and so sometimes besides those the Fowler drives before him there are others taken the second or third time. The Coy-ducks go not into the Cylindrical Nets, but stay without and entice others. Some train up a Whelp for this sort of fowling, teaching him to compass the hedges, and shew himself behind the Birds, to which purpose there are holes made in the hedges for him to pass freely. The Whelp in compassing the hedges ought always to keep his tail directed toward the Pool, his Head toward the Pipe, and so he terrifies the Birds before him, and drives them for∣ward: Those behind him he allures and tolls forward, they following him to gaze at him as a new and strange object. When the wind blows sideways the Birds are more easily driven whither the Fowler pleases, than when its blows * 1.3 directly contrary to them, or with them. For when it is directly contrary the Birds are very hardly dri∣ven to bear up against it: When it blows just behind them, it brings the sent of the Man or the Whelp into their Nosthrils. Wherefore (as we said) the Channels are drawn either on the North or South end of the Pool, because the West-wind with us as it is the most boisterous, so is it by far the most frequent of all.

Of the Coy-ducks some fly forth and bring home with them wild ones to the Pool, others have the outmost joynt or pinion of their Wings cut off, so that they cannot, fly, but abide always in the Pool. The Fowlers house is to be covered with trees and reeds, and hid as much as possible.

§. II. The Gadwall or Gray, perchance the * 1.4 Mitelenten of Gesner: Anas platyrhynchos rostro nigro & plano. Aldrov. p. 233. fortè Anas strepera Gesneri, Aldrov. p. 234.

IN bigness it equals or exceeds the Pochard, and comes very near the Duck. Its length from Bill to Tail was nineteen inches: Its breadth thirty three: Its Bill from the tip to the corners of the mouth two inches long. It is long-bodied: Its whole Rump black: Its Back brown, the edges of the feathers being of a whitish red: Its Chin and Cheeks white, speckled with small brown specks. Its head from blue in∣clines to black, the edges of the feathers being of an ash-colour in the Throat, and of a whitish red near the Breast. The lower part of the Neck and upper part of the Breast and Shoulders are covered with a most beautiful Plumage particoloured of black and white. The extreme edges and as it were fringes of the feathers are red∣dish, then a black line of a semicircular figure encompasses the tip of the feather, running parallel to its edges; within this is included another semicircular white line parallel to it, and in the white again a black. The Breast is white: The Belly darker, with transverse black spots. Under the Tail the feathers are crossed with brown. The lesser covert-feathers under the Wings and the interiour bastard Wing are purely white. The sides are curiously variegated with alternate black and white lines. The Tail is short, scarce appearing beyond the feathers incumbent on it, round-pointed, made up of sixteen feathers with sharp tips, of a white colour, especially on the un∣der side, for the two middle ones above are of a dark ash-colour: In the rest, espe∣cially the outmost, there is something of red mingled with the white: The edges of all are whitish.

Each Wing hath twenty six quils, of which the first ten are brown; the three next tipt with white: The four following have their outer Webs black, their tips also being whitish: In the three succeeding the inner Web of the feather is wholly white:

The four next the body are of a cinereous or reddish brown. The feathers of the second row, incumbent on the white quils, have their exteriour Webs of a black pur∣plish shining colour. In the third row are spots of red scattered.

Its Bill is like that of the common Duck or Teal, flat, broad, with a hook or nail at the end: The lower Mandible inclines to a Saffron colour; of the upper the sides are of the same colour, the middle part black: The Nosthrils great.

The Legs are feathered to the Knees: The Feet whitish: The hind-toe small: The inner fore-toe shorter than the outer: The membranes connecting the Toes black. It hath a huge Gall-bladder.

The Female hath the same spots in the Wings, but far duller colours; wants the black colour on the Rump, the feathers there growing having pale red edges; as have also those on the Back and Neck. It wholly wants those elegant semicircular black and white lines and spots in the Neck and Breast feathers, and the strakes under the Wings.

This Bird may be distinguished from all others of the Duck-kind by this characte∣ristic note, that it hath on the Wings three spots of different colour, one above ano∣ther, viz. a white, a black, and a red one.

§. III. * Gesners Muggent: Anas muscaria, Aldrov. lib. 19. cap. 41.

IT is so called because it catches flies flying upon [or above] the water. It is of the bigness and shape almost of a tame Duck. The Bill is broad and flat, its upper Chap being wholly of a Saffron-colour, in length beyond the feathers two inches: it is serrate on both sides with broad and in a manner membranaceous teeth, pretty high or deep; but those of the nether Chap are lower, and * 1.5 rise not much, making long striae. The Plumage almost all the body over is particoloured of blackish, fiery colour, and white, with a mixture of Weasel colour in some places, or in short almost like that of the Partridge, that is, testaceous, as of most of the pulveratricious kind, but yet differing. Its Feet are yellow: Its Toes joyned by blackish membranes: Its Neck both on the upper and under side is speckled [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] with the colours we mentioned. The crown of the Head is blacker than the other parts, which colour also is seen in the Wings, which are shorter than the Tail. Thus far Gesner. This Bird, if it be different from the Gadwall, as the colour of the Bill and Feet might perswade one, is to me unknown.

§. IV. The common Wigeon or Whewer: Penelope Aldrovandi, tom. 3. p. 218. lin. 30. Anas fistularis, Argentoratensibus Ein Schmey.

IT weighs twenty two ounces: Its length from Bill to Feet is twenty inches. The Head and upper end of the Neck are red. The crown towards the Bill is of a di∣lute colour, from red inclining to a yellowish white. The upper part of the Breast and sides as far as the Wings is beautified with a very fair tincture of a red Wine co∣lour, with small transverse black lines. The scapular feathers, and those on the sides under the Wings are very curiously varied with narrow transverse black and white waved lines. The middle of the Back is brown, the edges of the feathers being cine∣reous, especially towards the Tail. The feathers behind the Vent, next the Tail are black: The Breast and Belly white, with a little mixture of yellow. On both sides under the Legs are spots of a reddish brown: Under the Tail are white feathers alike spotted, mingled with the black. The Tail is sharp pointed, and consists of four∣teen feathers, of which the six outer on each side are brown, their exteriour edges being whitish; the two middle ones are black, with a mixture of ash-colour.

Of the quil-feathers the ten outmost are brown: The next ten have white tips, and among them the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth have their outer webs first of a black purplish colour, then as far as they appear beyond the covert-feathers of a lovely blue. In the eighteenth feather the exteriour half of the outer web is of a purplish black, the interiour toward the bottom is cinereous: But along the border of the black are small white spots from the white tip to the bottom. The twentieth feather is all of a pale or white ash-colour: The twenty first and

twenty second are white about the edges, black in the middle along the shaft. The small covert-feathers of the Wings are of a light brown or dark ash-colour; but those that cover the quils from the tenth to the twentieth are particoloured of brown, white, and cinereous.

Mr. Willughby in this and other Birds is, in my opinion, more particular and minute in describing the colours of each single feather of the Wings and Tail than is need∣ful; sith in these things nature doth as they say sport her self, not observing exactly the same strokes and spots in the feathers of all Birds of the same sort.

In the structure of the Mouth, Tongue, and Head, it differs little from the com∣mon wild Duck, unless perchance the Head be less in proportion to the body. The upper Mandible of the Bill is of a lead-colour, with a round black nail at the end. The Feet from a dusky white incline to a lead-colour. The Claws are black: The outmost Toe longer than the inmost: The back-toe short.

It feeds upon grass and weeds growing in the bottoms of Rivers, Lakes, and Chan∣nels of water, also upon Whilks, Periwinkles, &c. that it finds there. The Males in this kind at Cambridge are called Wigeons, the Females Whewers.

The flesh of it for delicacy is much inferiour to that of Teal, or indeed Wild-Duck.

§. V. The Sea-Pheasant or Cracker: Anas caudacuta, Aldrov. tom. 3. pag. 234. Coda lancea at Rome.

IT is of the bigness of the common Wigeon; of twenty four ounces weight: twenty eight inches long from Bill to Tail: From tip to tip of the Wings extended thirty seven inches broad.

Its Head is slender, its Neck long for this kind: Its Bill from the tip to the angles of the mouth two inches and an half, of equal breadth almost throughout; the nether Mandible wholly black, the upper partly blue, partly black, viz. black in the middle, on the sides beneath the Nosthrils blue: Black also at the corners of the mouth, at the very tip, and in the lower edges near the tip. The colour of the Plumage on the whole Head is ferrugineous or brown, behind the Ears tinctured with a light pur∣ple. Beyond the Ears on each side from the hinder part of the Head begins a line of white which passes down the sides of the Neck to the Throat. All the feathers between or adjacent to these lines are black: Under the black the Neck is ash-coloured, then curiously varied with transverse black and white lines, as is also almost the whole Back. The long scapular feathers are black in their middle parts, but the exteriour have their outer Webs almost to the shafts black, their inner (which are much the narrower) varied with white and black [brown] lines. All the nether part, Neck, Breast, Belly, to the very Vent is white. Yet in the lower Belly the white is a little darkned with a mixtue of cinereous. The feathers under the Tail are black.

As for the Wings, the ten outmost quils and most of the covert-feathers are of a dark cinereous [In some Birds the interiour edges of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth quils are white.] The second decad of quils is particoloured; for the tips of all are white, [or from white red] then in the outer Web succeeds a black line, the remaining part thereof, as far as appears beyond the incumbent feathers being of a glistering purple, or purplish blue colour: The interiour Webs of all are of the same colour with the rest of the feathers. Of the following the exteriour Webs are cine∣reous, the interiour black. The covert feathers of the second row immediately in∣cumbent on the second decad of quils have their tips of a fair red or Lion-colour. The long feathers covering the Thighs are elegantly varied with black and white transverse lines, beneath which the Plumage is yellow.

The Tail is made up of sixteen feathers, all ash-coloured excepting their exteriour edges, which are whitish. The two middlemost run out into very long and sharp points, being produced two inches and an half beyond the rest: Whence also this Bird is in some places of England called the Sea-pheasant.

Its feet are of a lead-colour, darker about the joynts. It hath a small Labyrinth, and a great Gall.

The Hen is like in colour to the common Wild-Duck, but fairer, and variegated with more full and lively white and brown colours. The Wing-feathers agree in co∣lour with those of the Cock, save that they are duller and less lively. The Belly is

reddish, the middle part of each single feather being black. The Chin is white, with a tincture of red. The Back of a dark brown, with transverse lines and beds of a pale red. The Breast of a sordid white, and the Belly yet darker.

This Bird may be distinguished from all others of the Duck-kind by the length of the middle feathers of its Tail as by certain and characteristic note.

§. VI. The Teal, Querquedula secunda, Aldrov. p. 209.

THis, next to the Summer-Teal, is the least in the Duck-kind; weighing only twelve ounces, extended in length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Feet fif∣teen inches; in breadth, measuring between the ends of the Wings spread, twenty four. Its Bill is broad, black, at the end something reflected upwards: The Eyes from white incline to hazel-coloured. The Nosthrils are of an oval figure. The top of the Head, Throat, and upper part of the Neck of a dark bay or spadiceous co∣lour. From the Eyes on each side to the back of the Head is extended a line of a dark, shining green. Between these lines on the back of the Head a black spot inter∣venes. Under the Eyes a white line separates the black from the red. The feathers investing the lower side of the Neck, the beginning of the Back, and the sides under the Wings are curiously varied with transverse waved lines of white and black. The region of the Craw in some is yellowish, elegantly spotted with black spots, so situate as somewhat to resemble scales. The Breast and Belly are of sordid white or grey colour. Under the Rump is a black spot encompassed with a yellowish colour.

Each Wing hath above twenty five quils. Of these the outmost ten are brown; the next five have white tips; under the white the exteriour Web of the Feather is black: In the sixteenth begins the green, and takes up so much of the feather as we said was black in the precedent three, The exteriour Web of the twenty third is black, with some yellowness on the edges. The covert-feathers of the black quils have white tips, of the green ones have tips of a reddish yellow: Else the Wings are all over brown [dusky.] The Tail is sharp-pointed, three inches long, made up of sixteen feathers, of a brown or dusky colour.

The Legs and Feet are of a pale dusky colour, the membrane connecting the Toes black: The inmost Toe the least. The Back-toe hath no fin annexed. The Wind∣pipe in the Cock is furnished with a Labyrinth: in the Hen we found none.

The Female differs from its Male in the same manner almost as the wild Duck does from the Mallard, having neither red nor green on the Head, nor black about its Rump: Nor those sine feathers variegated with white and black lines on the back and sides.

This Bird for the delicate taste of its flesh, and the wholsom nourishment it affords the body, doth deservedly challenge the first place among those of its kind.

§. 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 * 1.6 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.

§. VIII. * Of the Summer-Teal, called by Gesner Ana circia.

GEsner takes that Duck they call Circia to be of the kind of the lesser * 1.7 Querquedulae: A certain German renders it in High Dutch, Ein Birckilgen, and saith it is so cal∣led from the sound of its voice; that it is like a small Duck, but differs in the colour of the Wings and Belly. For the Wings want those glistering feathers, and the Belly is more spotted.

This kind (so he proceeds) I think is also found in our Lakes, for I saw not long since a small sort of Duck taken in the beginning of January, little bigger than a Dob∣chick, brown all over, having the Bill of a Duck, that is broad and brown: Also dusky coloured Legs and Feet; the Neck an hand-breadth long, the rest of the body six inches. But it was a Hen, and had Eggs in the Belly. The Cock, I guess, hath more beautiful colours. In the Stomach I found nothing but small-stones, and the seeds of some water-plants, almost of the fashion of Lentiles (but lesser and thicker) and reddish. Thus far Gesner.

From this short description, and that too of a Hen bird, we cannot certainly ga∣ther, whether it be a distinct Species from the precedent. But we suspect it was of that bird which our Country men call the Summer-Teal, which Mr. Johnson informs us is of that bigness; for we have not as yet seen it.

Its Bill is black: The whole upper side of a dark grey or light brown; the edges [or extremes] of the feathers in the Back are white. In the Wings is a line or spot of an inch breadth, partly black, partly of a shining green, terminated on both sides with white. In the Tail the feathers are sharp-pointed. The whole under side seems to be white, with a slight tincture of yellow; but on the Breast and lower Bel∣ly are many pretty great black spots. The Legs are of a pale blue, the membranes be∣tween the Toes black. This is the least of all Ducks. In its stomach dissected I found nothing but grass and stones. This description we owe to Mr. Johnson.

§. IX. * A wild Brasilian Duck of the bigness of a Goose. Marggrave.

IT hath a black Bill, dusky Legs and Feet. It is all over black except the beginnings [setting on] of the Wings, which are white; but that black hath a gloss of shi∣ning green. It hath a crest or tuft on it heads consisting of black feathers, and a cor∣rugated red mass or bunch of flesh above the rise of the upper Mandible of the Bill. It hath also a red skin about the Eyes. It is very fleshy, and good meat. They are com∣monly shot sitting on high trees: For after they have washt themselves in cold water, they fly up high trees, for the benefit of the fresh air and Sun.

§. X. * A Wild Brasilian Duck, called, Ipocati-Apoa, by the Portughese, Pata, that is, A Goose. Marggrav.

IT is of the bigness of a Goose of eight or nine months, of the very shape and figure of our common Ducks: The Belly, lower part of the Tail, the whole Neck and Head are covered with white feathers; the Back to the Neck, the Wings and top of the Head with black, having a mixture of green, as in the Necks of our Ducks. In the Neck and Belly are black feathers, all about sparsedly mingled with the white. It differs from our Country Ducks in these particulars: 1. That it is bigger. 2. It hath indeed a Ducks Bill, but black and hooked at the end. 3. Upon [or above] the Bill it carries a fleshy crest, broad, and almost round, of a black colour, remarkably spotted with white. The Crest is of equal height. Between the Crest and the Bill (viz. on the top of the Bill) is a transverse hole of the bigness of a Pease, conspicu∣ous on both sides, which serves instead of Nosthrils. 4. The colour of the Legs and Feet is not red, but of a dusky ash-colour. It is full of flesh, and good meat. It is found every where about the Rivers.

I had another in all things like this, excepting that those long feathers in the Wings were of a shining brown colour. I suppose this is the Male, the other the Female.

§. XI. * The first Brasilian wild Duck, called Mareca, of Marggrave.

IT hath a Ducks Bill, of a brown colour, at the rise whereof on each side is a red spot. The Head above is of a grey Hare-colour: The sides of the Head under the Eyes all white. The whole Breast and lower Belly hath an obscure resemblance of the colour of Oaken boards; and is besides variegated with black points [specks.] The Legs and Feet are black; the Tail grey. The Wings elegant, at the setting on of a dark grey colour. * 1.8 The quil-feathers on one side are of the former colour, but all the outer half of them [medietas extrema] of a pale brown: In the middle they are of a shining green, with a border of black; like the colour of the Mallards Neck. Its flesh is very good meat. The outmost of a light brown, and the middlemost of a shining green, with a fringe or border of black.

§. XII. * The second Brasilian wild Duck, called Mareca, of Marggrave.

IT is of the same bigness and figure with the precedent, hath a black shining Bill. The top of the Head, the upper part of the Neck, and the whole Back are of an Umber colour mixed with brown [fusco.] Under the Throat it is white. The Eyes are black, and before each Eye is a small round spot of a yellowish white colour. The whole Breast and lower Belly are of a dark grey, with a mixture of golden. The Tail is black: The Wing-feathers dusky, with a gloss of shining green, and the middle feathers of the Wings are of a rare green and blue shining in a dusky: Here also they have a waved line of black: But the * 1.9 end [extremitas] of the quil-feathers is wholly white. The Legs and Feet are of a bright red or vermilion colour. The Bird roasted colours the hands of those that touch it, and linnen cloth with a sanguine colour. It hath well tasted flesh, but a little bitter.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Tom. 3. pag. 212.
• * 1.2

  Fuscis, dusky.
• * 1.3

  Lies in their faces, or on their backs.
• * 1.4

  Anas mediae magnitudinis.
• * 1.5

  Stand up or out but very little.
• * 1.6

  Mr. Willughby describes them to be of a purplish co∣lour, with a mixture of cinereous.
• * 1.7

  Teal.
• * 1.8

  I suppose he means, that the inner quils, or those next the bo∣dy are of a dark grey as was before in∣timated.
• * 1.9

  Or border, or perchance outside.