The Wezel Coot.
Numb. LXXXVIII.
ITS Length from the Tip of the Bill to the End of the Tail, or Legs, is
feventeen Inches; Breadth when the Wings are expanded two Foot
three Inches and a half; it weighs twenty four Ounces, and is about the
Bignefs of a Teal.
The Bill is black, the upper Mandible fomething longer than the lower,
both ferrate, the upper fitting into that of the lower when clofed.
The Top of the Head is brown, it hath a black Spot reaching from the
Bill beyond the Eyes; under the Eyes is a Spot of white like a Star; the upper
Side of the Neck, Back and Tail are of a dusky brown, inclining to a
black, and the under Side of the Neck, Breaft and Belly white.
The Wings have twenty three quill Feathers each, the firft fourteen of
which are black, and the (even following are white; the twenty fecond
hath its exterior Web white, and the interior black; the twenty third all
black, and the upper covert Feathers of the Wings are white.
The Tail is made up of fixteen Feathers of a dusky Colour, the middle-
moft being the longeft, and fo ihorter by Degrees on each Side, makng
a Semicircular Circumference when ipread.
The Tongue is rediih, fleihy and channelled in the middle, ending in a
thin filmy Subftance.
The Legs and Toes are of a pale Orange Colour, in fome black; the Membrane
connecting the Toes is black; the outer fore Toe equal with the middle
Toe, having four Joints, the middlemoft three, and inner fore Toe buttwo
Joints; the hind Toe is large and flat, having a broad lateral Membrane annexed
to it.
Thefe Birds, when fat, are equal to the Teal in -Tafte and Goodnefs.
The