in Natural History, and these are among the earliest representations
of this, species. Plate 99 represents an adult
male, brought from Newfoundland, where,.on account of its
variegated plumage, it .is nailed the Painted Duck. Plate
157 is a representation of a female brought; from Hudson s
Bay, where the male, from his fine appearance, is called thé
Lord Duck*
This species is well known tor American ornithologistf;
Mr. Audubon says, “ On the Slet.of May,.1833, I found
them breeding on "White Head Island, and other much
smaller places of a similar nature, in the same part of the
Bay of Ftindy. There they plach their nests under the
bushes, Or amid thé grass, at thè-distancé of .tweritybor thirty
yards from thé-water. Farther-north-, ini-NewfoUndland and
Labrador, for example, they remove from >éhe«se|,-and. betake
themselves to small lake&r à- mile or'so in the. interior,.on the
margins: of which they *form their nests * ’beneath«, tlie bushes,
next to thewater. • The nest is composed of ;-dry plants.. M"
various kinds, arranged; in; a - circular manner «to theiheigKtepf -
two or three inches,-and lined with finer- .grasses'; Theidggs
are five /ifioreV--measure two inches and. èn'e;
sixteenth,#''byvvon^inch and nine-epdeenth's^ .and--are»-'of a
plain greenish-yellow colour«* After the eggs?, are laid, the!
female plucks the down from the lower parts of her body,
and places it beneath' and around .them, in the same.' mannèf
as the Eider Duck and o t h e r ^ ^ e s ^of rtitói, triie z ; TMe
male leaves” her to perform the. arduous, but, no ,;dou|)t^;td
her pleasant, task of hatching and rearing the brood, and|
joining his idle companions, returns tóvthe sea-shoiè, where
he moults in July and-August.” . *
The adult male -has the^bill bluish-black ; the iride^
orange ; forehead, crown, hack of the neck, around the .Oyes,
the cheeks, and sides of the neck, bluiéh-black, tinged-with
violet colour ; at the base of the hill, and on the .ear-coverts,
a patch of white; Over the eyes, and down the neck behind
the ear-coverts, are streaks of white, that over the eye varied
with rufous below, and reaching to the occiput; at the bottom
of the neck, and again below across the chest, are bands
of .white ; beneath the first, and above and below the.second,
are narrow bands of black; back, wing-covërts, and rump,
bluish-blaek ; primary quill-feathers and tail dull black ; scapulars
and secondaries white.; front of neck between the
crescentic bands bluish-grey ’;'*.breast below the second band,
and the belly dusky grey, becoming darker towards the vent
and under •taih-covefts,' which are bluish-black; sides of the
body-find flanks Èufdlis,- or chès'tnut; legs and toes blue, the
membranes darker. The whole length seventeen inches '; the
.wing/jfrom the bend eight jneheip the first quin-feather the
longest;. The:female is considerably smaller than the male,
and of a nearly uniform brown .colour above, hut mottled on
■tbéifoout of the1 neck and' on ith'e breast with two shades of
'•brown, and With a patch of more, or less pure white on the
forehead, as well as «before and behind the ey e; the belly
whitish. Whole length 'fourteen inches^ of the wing, from
thé carpal joitit, seven inches.!,; r
Young males, during their first winter, like the females,
fbUt, in the second .year, according to Mr. Audubon, “ are
greyish-brown on the back and wings, light brownish-grey
beneath. -The head and neck are of a dull leaden-blue, the
upper part ofythe head darker* The white spot before the
eye is mottled with grey, the l|i$ ' èxtending over the eye
obscure, and the edging of the occiput faint reddish-brown.
The two white marks exist on the sides of the neck, hut are
merely edged with darker blue; there are slight indications
„.of the white collar, and the band before the wing is marked,
but much smaller than in the adult. The quills are dark
* brown, i^but the secondaries are not tipped with white, of
which there are but slight indications on the scapulars. The