[219.] 11 H a r e l d a g l a c ia l is . (Leach.) Long-tailed Duck.
Su b -F a m il y , Fuligulinae, Sw ain s. Genus, Harelda, L e a c h .
Long-tailed Duck. E dw., pi. 156. May plumage, male, pi. 280.
Anas glacialis et hyemalis. F o ust. Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 418, No. 50.
Long-tailed Duck (Anas hyemalis et glacialis). P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 566, No. 501. W its ., viii. p. 93
pi. 70, f. 1, male, winter; f. 2, female.
Canard demiclon (Anas glacialis). T em m ., ii., p. 860.
Anas glacialis (Long-tailed Duck). Sab. Greenl. Birds, p. 555, No. 28. R ic h Second Voy a r d s. Append. Parry’s ., p. 373, No. 33.
Fuligula glacialis. B o na p. Syn., p. 395, No. 346.
Caccawee, Cana dia n V oya geu r s. South-southerly, U n it e d St a t e s .
Old Wives, and Swallow-tailed Ducks, H udso n ’s B ay R e s id e n t s . Aldiggee-areeoo, E s<iu im a u x .
The peculiar cry of this Duck is celebrated, in the songs of the Canadian
voyageurs, by the epithet of “ Caccawee,” which is expressed by “ South-
southerly ” in the United States, and “ Hahhaway ” among the Crees. The
long tail of the male gives to its flight the resemblance of that of a Swallow.
The eggs of the Duck are pale greenish-grey, with both ends rather obtuse; they are twenty-six lines long and eighteen wide.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed, May 1, 1826, on the Saskatchewan.
Colour.—The whole upper plumage, the two central pairs of tail feathers, and the under
plumage to the fore part of the belly, brownish-black; the lesser quills paler. A triangular
patch of feathers between the shoulders, and the scapulars, broadly bordered with orange-
brown. Sides of the head from the bill to the ears ash-grey ; eye stripe and posterior under
plumage pure white. Flanks, sides of the rump, and lateral tail feathers, white, stained with
brown; axillaries and inner wing coverts clove-brown. Sill black, with an orange belt before
the nostrils. Legs dark brown.
Form.—Bill very short, high at the base; unguis strong and arched ; lamince distant,
prominent, and cutting; the upper ones projecting considerably below the margin of the
mandible, the lower ones, which are nearly as prominent as tire upper ones, divided into two
nearly equal rows by a horizontal fissure*. Nostrils large, situated nearer to the front than
to the tip of the bill. Forehead high. Neck thickish. Wings an inch and a half shorter
than the outer tail feathers, and nine inches and a half shorter than the central ones. Tail
very long, of fourteen feathers ; middle pair slender and tapering, six inches longer than
the adjoining ones.. Toes short, as in the Harlequin Duck; the nails rather longer than
those of that bird.
Specimens killed a fortnight or three weeks later in the season, at Bear Lake, on their way
to the breeding-places, differ in having a large white patch on the hind head and occiput,
with scattered white feathers on the neck and among the scapulars; the sides under the
wings pure pearl-grey, and the sides of the rump unstained white. Captain Sabine describes
* In the Analitue and Fuligulime, in general, the lamina; of the -under mandible are crowned by a narrow and
often more prominent, row of more crowded laminae; but in the Harlequin Duck this upper row approaches nearer to the
size and form of the lower one; and in the Long-tailed Duck the two rows scarcely differ in magnitude.—R,
this state as the pure breeding plumage; but individuals, coloured like the one killed on the
Saskatchewan are often seen at the breeding stations*.
IVinter plumage of the male.—Head, neck, and scapulars, white; cheeks and chin ash-
coloured ; lateral neck stripe chestnut-brown. Legs yellowish. In other respects like the
above.
Mature female, killed May 25, lat. 65%°.— Upper plumage and sides of the breast pale
liver-brown, with dark centres ; the wing coverts, scapulars, and hinder parts, mostly edged
with white. Top of the head blackish-brown ; its sides anteriorly broccoli-brown: ears and
base of the neck below clove-brown. A spot at the base of the bill and a stripe behind the
eye white. Throat and collar ash-grey. Tail feathers brownish-grey, edged with white,
short, and worn.
Dimensions
Of the male.
Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin.
Length, total . • . 26 0 Length of bill to rictus . 1 7 Length of middle nail . 0
„ of tail . . 10 0 „ of tarsus . . 1 3 ,, of outer toe 2 0
• of wing
: „ of bill above
. 8 . 1
6
0
„ of middle toe 1 11 ,, of its nail . . o 24
— R .
[220.] 1. M e r g u s m e r g a n s e r . (Linn.) The Goosander.
Su b -f a m il y , Merganinae, Sw ain s. Genus, Mergus, L in n .
Goosander (Mergus merganser). P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 537, No. 465.
W il s -, viii., p. 68 , pi. 6 8 , f. 1 and 2.
Grand H arle (Mergus merganser). T em m ., ii., p. 881.
Mergus merganser. B onap. Syn., p. 397, No. 347.
Seek. Cr e e I n d ia n s.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan.
Colour.—Head and adjoining half of the neck deep blackish-green ; rest of the neck, all
the lesser coverts but the humeral ones, the distal halves of the greater coverts, the lesser
quills, exterior scapulars, and whole under plumage, rich buff-orange (which fades to white
after the specimen has been exposed for a few months to the light). Fore part of the back,
longer scapulars, humeral wing coverts, bastard wing, bases of the greater coverts, narrow
borders of the tertiaries, and fourteen exterior quill feathers, velvet-black (changing to brown
before moulting). Hinder part of the back, tail coverts, and tail, bluish-grey, deepening
* Mr. Edwards, surgeon of the Fury on Sir Edward Parry’s second voyage, describes the Long-tailed Ducks killed
on Melville Peninsula, between the 1st and 25th June, as follows:—“ They had all a dark, silky, chestnut-brown
patch on the side of the neck ; a mixture of white in the black stripe from the bill to the crown ; the crown and nape
either entirely white, or mixed with black ; scapulars and upper tail coverts edged with white; a broad white collar
round the lower part of the neck, in some individuals tipped with black or brown; occasionally a white band on the
breast. The colour of the belt on the bill varied from rose-red to violet.”—R.