+- VELVET D.
B*seRH*Ti(m.
F emale.
Anas fiifca, Lin. Syfi. i. p. 196. 6.— Faun. Suec. N° 109.—Scop. Ann. L
N° 68.— Brun. N° 48.— Muller, N° 109..— Frijfcb. pi. 165.'—Georgi
Rei/e, p. 166^
Turpan, N. G. Petr. iv. p. 420.
La grande Macreufe, Brif, Orn. vi. p. 423. 29.— PL Enl.- 9156;
La double Macreufe, Buf. Oif. ix. p. 242.
Great Black Duck» Rail Syn. p. 141« A. 4.— Will'. Orn. p. 3^3* P^* 7®*’
Velvet Duck, Br. Zool. ii. N° 272. pi. 96.— Ar£l. ZW. N° 482.
Lev. Muf.
A Trifle larger than a Mallard: length fomewhat more than
twenty inches. The bill rifes into a knob at the bafe, behind
the noftrils, where it is black; the reft of the bill is yello-w, with
the nail at the end red; the edges, all round, black : the plumage,
in general, is black ; inclined to brown on the belly and'
vent: under each eye-lid a white mark, paffihg in a ftreak behind
the eye j. and acrofs the middle of the wing a band of white:
the legs are red: claws black.
The female is brown where the male is black, and the protuberance
at the bafe of the bill wanting.
Mr. Hutchins favoured me with the defcription of a bird which
I take to be a variety of the above. Length fixteen inches :
breadth twenty-feven: weight twenty-one ounces. Irides dirty
white : forehead of a dark brown: crown black : under each eye
a large white fpot: neck rufty brown : fcapulars and upper tail
coverts black : breaft fhaded with black: belly white j in young,
birds black.
This frequents Hudfon’s Bay in fummer, where it breeds. The
neft compofed of grajs: the eggs from four to fix in number,.
2 and
PtACI.
and white : hatches in July. Feeds on graft. Known by the
name of Cus cuji qua turn. It retires fouth in. winter. At that
feafon the Velvet Duck is frequently feen as hr fouth as TewTork:
our late navigators met with it at Aoonalajhka *.
It is now and then feen on the coafts of England, but is not
‘Common. More plenty on the continent, inhabiting Denmark
and RuJJia: in foine parts of Sihiria very common j and enters
the lift of thofe found at Kamtfchatka. In breeding-time goes
far inland to lay the eggs, which are eight or ten in number,
and white. After the feafon is over, the males are faid to depart;
the females flaying behind till the young are able to fly, when
the two laft go likewife off, but to what part is not certain +•
We believe that this is called at Kamtfchatka, Turpan; though
it is in greater plenty at Ochotfka, efpecially about the equinox:
fifty or more of the natives go in boats, and furround the whole
•flock, driving them, in the flood, up the river Ochotfka; and,
as foon as it ebbs, the whole company fall on them at once
with clubs, and often knock fo many of them on the head, that
each man has twenty or thirty for his fhare £•.
* Ellis’s Narr. ii. p. 43. f Nov. Com. -Petr. iv. p. 421 ,— ArEl. Zoot.
4 Hill. Kamtfih. p. 160.
3 Q. 2 Anas