F emale.
P lace and
Manners.
6z.
+ . F A L C A T E D
D .
D escription.
fpotted with grey: lower belly, Tides, and thighs, barred with-
whitilh and grey-brown lines: vent dark j on the wing are three-
fpots of different colours, viz. white, black, and red: tail afh-
colour, edged with white : legs orange.
The female differs in having the colours on' the wings duller,,
though marked the fame as the male : the bread: reddilh brown,
fpotted with black: the feathers on the neck and back edged,
with pale red: rump the fame, inftead of black: and thofe elegant
femicircular lines on the neck and bread: wholly wanting.
This inhabits England in the winter months ; and is alfo found'
at the fame feafon in various parts of France and Italy ; migrates-
as far as Sweden as dimmer advances, in order to breed ; and
found throughout Ruffia and Sibiria, except in the eaftern part-:
of the lad:, and Kamtfchatka.
It is a very quick diver, fo as to make it difficult to be (hot.
Feeds morning and evening only; being hid among the reeds.
and rufhes during the day. The noife it makes is not unlike
that of the Mallard, but louder. The fielh is good-
Anas falcaria, Pall. Trav. iii. p. 70r-
— — falcata, Georgi Rei/et p* 168.
F a l c a t e d D u c k , Ar3 . Zook p . 5 7 4 * L p i* z 3 *
C I Z E of a Wigeon : length one foot fix inches: weight twenty-
® five ounces and fix drams. The bill an inch and a half long,,
and black: the feathers of the back part of the head,.and a little
way down the neck, long, and crefted : the forehead and crown
dull ferruginous; in the middle,, near the bafe of the bill, a fpot
of white : round the eyes, hind head,, and creft, fhining green,
varied
varied with copper, efpecially on the temples: chin white: beneath
this two collars, the firft of a greenifh black, and fprings
from the creft; the lower one white; the reft of the neck and
breaft cinereous, undulated with brown: back grey, the upper part
obfcurely lineated with a paler colour : the belly dotted with
grey and white : vent black; the Tides of it white, divided tranf-
verfe-ly by a black band: fhoulders grey, and fomewhat undulated:
fcapulars grey, and curve inwards at the ends : fpeculum
of a fine blue green, above it a white band : wings as long as
the tail: legs lead-colour.
This is found in the eaftern part of Sibiria, from the river
fenifei to the Lena, and beyond Lake Baikal-, but not in the
weft.. Found alfo in Kamtfchatka, but rare. Probably winters
in the Mongolian deferts, and China; is affuredly found in the
laft, as I have a fpecimen from thence, which was brought alive
to England, where it lived for fome time among other poultry,
and was pretty familiar, and when dead was prefented to my
colleftion.
Sarcelle de Java, Buf. 0 /7'. ix. p . 275.— F/. Enl. 93°* 62,
r-jTHIS differs from the laft in having the head very little creft-
A ed on the crown, the feathers of the nape only being elonga-
ted : no falciform- feathers falling over the quills : no white on
the vent or fides of it; inftead of which they, as Well as the back,
are brown : and the thighs are white : in; other things it much
refembles the former-;, and we fufpea that it is only the female or .
a young bird of this beautiful fpecies. I obferve alfo another,,
very fimilar to this, among fome Chinefe drawings, and therefore
look upon it as a bird of China.
Ams.