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The hooked-bilVd Duck and Drake. Anas roftro adunco.
Numb.' XCVI, XCVII.
T p H E Drake; its Weight was two Pound and two Ounces; its
-*■ Length, from the Tip of the Bill to the End of the Tail, was
twenty five Inches and a half; the Breadth, when the Wings are extended,
two Foot ten Inches; the Bill was two Inches and a half long,
of a pale green Colour moderately bending; the Hook or Nail at the
End black.
The Head and upper part of the Neck, of a dark green, with two
Lines of fmall white Specks, one from the upper part of the Bill, reaching
over the Eye almoft to the back part of the Head, the other from
the Bill, to the under part of the Eye, which was encompafled with a
Circle of the fame fmall white Feathers, the Chin was alfo fpeckled.
The Throat, Breaft, and Belly, were white with fome few tranfverfe
Spots of redilh brown; the Back, fcapular Feathers of the Wings, and
the Sides, are of the fame brown Colour, edged and fpeckled or dufted
over with white.
The prime Feathers of the Wings were twenty four; the firft fix
were all white, the reft rediih brown ; the firft Row of covert Feathers
were blue with white Tips, the fecond Row brown with white Tips.
The Tail was made up of twenty black Feathers with white Tips,
four of the middlemoft being reflected, circularly towards the Head:
the Legs and Feet were of an orange Colour.
The Duck of this Kind was very like the common Duck, excepting
the Bill, which was hooked. Thefe Ducks are better layers than any
of the other, either wild or tame.
H e
r //s D u e /,