2.
-DUN-DIVER.
Mergus Merganfer (fem.) Faun. Suec. p. 48.
Mergus Gulo, Scop. Ann. i. N° 88.
Anas rubricapilla, Brun. N° 93.
Mergus Merganfer, (fem.) Faun, Suec. p. /fi.— Kram. El, p. 343* N° 2.
Mergus caftor, Lin.Syft. i. p. 209, 4?
L’Harle cendre, ou le Bievre, Brif, Qrn. vi. p. 254, pi. 25.
L’Harle femelle, Brif. Orn. vi. p. 236.—Buf. Oif viii. p. 272.— PI,
Enl. 953.
Dun-Diver, or Sparling Fowl, Raii Syn. p. 134: A. 2.—Will. Orn. p. 333.
pi. 64. (the head.)—Albin, i. pi. 87.—Br. 2acl. ii. p. 557. pi. 92.
fig. 2.—Arli. Zool• ^ 4 6 5 .
Br. Muf. Lev. Muf.
D e s c r i p t i o n . i j 1 H E Dun - Diver is lefs than the Goofander, and meafures
in length twenty-feven inches : is thirty-five in breadth :
and weighs three pounds and a half. The bill is much the
fame, but duller in colour ■, the nail at the tip blackifh : the upper
part of the head and neck are ferruginous, paleft on the fore
part: the feathers of the crown and nape much longer than in
the Goofander: the chin and throat white: the back, wing coverts,
tail, and fides of the body, are alh-colour: the lower part
of the neck before, the breaft, and middle of the belly, are white:
greater quills black : fcapulars darker than the back : the ends
of fix of the fecondaries white for two inches, but the laft of
P l a c e .
thefe has the inner web, and the remaining part of the others,
wholly of a pale alh-colour : legs orange, but paler than in the
Goofander.
The above is moftly -found in the fame place, and at the fame
feafons, as the Goofander ■, but appears to be far more common.
T H E
'J 'H E Mergus Cafior*, fuppofed by Linnaeus and Briffon to be
a diftinft fpecies, feems fo little to differ from the Dun-Diver
as to be efteemed as one bird ; it is indeed much lefs in fize, being
fcarcely bigger than the Smew: 'the length of my fpecimen
twenty-one inches and a half: breadth twenty-feven : weight
feventeen ounces: the bill tw~o inches and a quarter: as to the
colours, and the diftinftion of them, it is much the fame as in the
Dun-Diver; but’ the neck has a greater mixture of afh-colour,
and there is a pale ftreak between the noftrils and eye: the reft
as in the laft-named bird..
This is faid to be common in Germany ; and at times to be
found as low as Egypt f . The fpecimen referred to above was
killed on the coaft of Suffolk.'
An opinion has prevailed among later authors, that the Goofan-
der and Dun-Diver were male and female only, and not diftinft
fpecies ; but perhaps this conjefture may not be fo firmly eftab-
lifhed as not to admit of the intrufion of a different fentiment:
and the following fafts lead us again to feparate them into different
fpecies.
I11 the firft place, the Dun-Diver is ever lefs than the Goofan-
der ; and individuals of that bird differ greatly in fize among
themfelves : and, if we admit the laft-defcribed as a variety only,
in an extreme degree : we may alfo add, that the crefl is confi-
derably longer and fuller in the one efteemed as the female, than
in that thought to be the male; a circumftance obferved in no
* Biemt Oifiaut fee Bdm, H iß . Nat. da Of. p. 163.— This author talks of
its building on rocks and trees,
4 Id.
other
V a r . A .
D e s c r i p t i o n ,
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