53* 0 U C K .
labyrinth at the entrance of the lungs, which the other fex
has not.
In the Britijh Zoology the defcriptiori fomewhat differs. The
bill is yellowith brown: head dufky ruil-coiour: round the
upper part of the neck a white collar ; beneath, a broader one of
grey: back and- coverts dufky, with a few white lines; greater
coverts dufky , with a few white fpots; primaries black; fecon-
daries, bread, and belly, white: Tides above the thighs black:
tail dufky : legs yellow.
None of the birds we have hitherto treated of has caufed
more uncertainty in our minds about the identity of the
fpecies than this;, but we fear that thofe defcribed by Brif-
^fon have not come under our infpeCtion, at lead his male.
Some years back I had a pair fent to me for Morillom, which
differed from each other merely in having the head and neck of
the reputed male greatly darker than thofe of the female; but
both were fo like the hens of the Golden-eye, that I was druck
with the circumdance : they were dried fpecimens, fo that the
internal conformation of the wind-pipe, &c. could not be detected.
Willughby feems at a great lofs how to account for feve-
ral birds defcribed by him *, which were greatly fimilar in plumage,
as he found the labyrinth (an endowment of male birds only)
in fome thought by him to be females; but this may be reconciled
by allowing for the different date of plumage in birds
in different periods of life; and that, although the feathers were
not the fame in the young birds as in the adult, yet the labyrinth-
was to be feen in every dage; hence this circumdance, having
* See On. p. 367, 368, 369. feft. xLi.xiii.xiv.
nothing:
nothing to do with the age, can only afeertain the/«. We have
feen the Golden-eye complete in every thing but the white fpot
at the corners of the mouth ; and in the Britijh Mufeum may be
feen one with the white fpot as large as ufual, but advanced only
fo far towards perfection as to be greatly obfeured by duflty fpots;
ferving to fhew the progrefs of nature towards the perfection of
the didinCtive marks of the adult bird.
La Sarcelle du Mexique, Brif. Orn. vi. p. 458.—Buf. Qif. ix. p. 285.
ToltecolodHi, feu Metzcanahachtli, Rati Syn. p. 175.
Sarcelle, Defer. Suritt. ii. p. 158.
C I Z E of our 'Teal. The upper mandible blue; the under
black : irides black* : the head is fulvous, mixed with black-
ifh and gloffy greenidi blue: between the bill and eye a large
fpot of white: neck and body white, fpeckled with black dots,
in greated number on -the bread: fcapulars, and upper tail coverts,
the fame; under tail coverts blue : wing coverts blue, acrofs
them a band of white; the greater ones, farthed from the body,,
blackifh : quills black, fome of the middle ones green outwardly,
and tipped with fulvous, forming a band of the lad acrofs the
wing at that part; but thofe neared the body are white, dotted
with black: tail dufky black, margined with white: legs o f a
pale red.
The female differs in having the head, hind part of the
neck, back and fcapulars, wing coverts, and rump, black, fome
of the feathers edged with fulvous, and others with white: throat,
* Fermin fays, the irides and eye-lids are yellow.
3 Z 2 fore
7*.
MEXICAN D.
D escription.
I
Fema^s.