according to Savi; and it is said to be found: in' Africa, even™
as far south as the Cape. It has been fohnd in’ Asia
Minor, at Trebizond, and in: the-countries about the Càuca-
sian range* Mr. Strickland says dt is frequently to bb seen
in the poultry shops at Smyrna, b u t: owing to. the .'Turkish
practice of cutting the throats of ; birds, as soon : as | shot, he
was unable-.tof obtain a pèrfect specimen»? Messrs. Dickson
and Ross say this , species is abundant at Brzèroóm, fréquents
marshes during the day, but feeds late ini the evening’and
early in^the morning in com and stubble fields. . Arrives
there about the middle, of March, and .departs at the end of
November ; rarely .seen', in the water. • Said to breed in the
marshes. ’ Great-- numbers on..;the Lake of Vah, in .August.1
Native name, AHngoot. Colonel' Sykes includes this speciés;
in his Cataloguetofithe Birds of the Dukhum |
The food of this duck consists of aquatic plants. and their
seeds, insects, and the fry of fish. . Latham says it makes its
nest in the craggy banks 'of the WolgU, anck other, riverside
in the hollows of the deserted hills of marmots; ^forming it
after the manner of the Shieldrak-é, and it is said to make
burrows for itself in the' manner o f that bird ; builds : sometimes'in
the shaft of an old well that is- not ,used, and has'
been known also to lay in a hollow tree, lining the nest with
its own; feathers. . They pair, andfthe male and -female sit
by turns. 7 They lay eight ..or nine white eggs. - "When, the
young come forth the mother will often carry them from the
place of hatching to the water, with the bilkAi'Havef beën
attempted to-be domesticated, by fearing thé young. under
tame Ducks, but without success^.as they remain wild, effecting;
their escape the' first opportunity ; and if the old 'ones
are, taken; and confined, they lay; their; eggs ’ in a dispersed
manner, and never; sit. The voice of the bird when flying
is not unlike the note , of a " clarionet : at other times it cries?
like a Peacock, especially when kept confined ; and,now and
then clucks like a hen. The organ of voice is unknown to
me.- JEach bird is very choice of its mate, for if the male is
killed the female will not leave the gunner till she has been
two ofeHhree times shot a t- Quoting the Memoirs of the
Baron de To.tt, who travelled in Tartary and the Crimea,
Latham says, .the Tartars pretend that the flesh of this bird
is exceedingly dangerous: “ I fasted it,Isays' he, “ and only
found it exceedingly good-for-nothing” -These birds go
in pairs during the summert; at' other-times gregarious, ji
In ithe adult male the beak; is* lead colour; the irides yel-
lowish-bröwn; heady cheeks, and chin buff colour, becoming
darker, almost an orange-brown, towards the lower part of the
neck all round; towards the bottom of the neck a ring of
blacky the back, tertials,' breast, and all thé under surface
of the body the same ; the point-bf-the wing, and the wing-
coverts- pale buffy-white; wing-primaries lead grey, almost
black; secondaries rather lighter in colour, the outer webs
short of the end, forming a?’brilliant green speculum; rump
and tail-feathers lead-grey ;•••• legs, toes, and their membranes
brownish-grey. ■
Whole-length twenty-five pr twenty-six inches; the females
are rather smaller in size; and the female in the Newcastle
Museum is thus described by Mr. Fox f t “ The crown of the
head and tlfé1 neck is of a mouse-rgrey; the front, cheeks, and
throat pure white. The whole? of the breast, belly, upper
part of the back, and scapular feathers, which are-very long,
of a light ferruginous, which is the prevailing colour of the
bird. The feathers are broad at their end, semicircular, and
tipped with a lighter colour, which form semicircular lines all
over the body; 1 The wing-coverts are white, which forms a
broad space on the wing; below this the secondary quills are
green, forming a speculum ; the greater quills brown, darker
on the edges, which has occasioned them to be described as
black ; the same applies to the tail and back, which is nearly