4 96
Place»
CURVE-BILLED
D.
De SCRIPT10N.
This feems to be a mere variety of the common Duck, and
breeds as well in its tame ftate. It feems only to be kept in
England out of curiofity; but we are informed that in fome
parts of Germany this fort is full as common, and the breed is
encouraged almoft to the exclufion of the laft. Bancroft *, in his
Hiftory of Guiana, mentions a Wild Duck, larger than the tame one,
and refembling it, except in the bill, which is black, and crooked
at the end; and the feet and legs of an alh-colour. Thefe, he
fays, are found in plenty, during the rainy feafons, on the banks
of rivers near the fea.
Other varieties might alfo be mentioned : iuch as, thole with
tufted heads; others, with ibme of the fecond quills turned upwards,
called four-winged Ducks f ; and, not unfrequently, one or
two in a brood wanting the webs between the toes, while others
of the fame hatching have them complete.
Anas curviroflra, Pall. Spic. vi. p. 33.
g I Z E of the Wild Duck, if not bigger. Bill as in that bird,
but bent downwards : irides fulvous : general colour of the
plumage black, but more dull on the quills and under parts:
the head, neck, and rump, tinged with fhining grey: on the
throat an oval fpot of white: the five outer quills white j the
others black; the exterior fecondary quill margined with white
on the outer edge at the end j but the outer margins in general
have a blue black glofs, forming a fpeculum of that colour on
* Hift, Guian. p. 170.
t See a Goo/e of this kind in Gent, Mag. vol. xxv. pi. oppofite fig. 2.
the
the wing: tail as in the Mallard, with the two recurved feathers
in the middle.
The above was deferibed from a fpecimen in the late Mufeum
of M. Vroeg, now difperfed, and in the Prime of Orange's Mufeum.
The author fuppofes it not to be a variety of the Mallard with
the hooked bill, but a diftindt fpecies.
Bill two inches and a half in length, of a lead-colour, with
a black tip : general colour of the plumage cinereous brown, the
edges of the feathers very pale: over the eye a ftreak of white ;
beneath it a fecond, broader than the firft : chin and fore part of
the neck dulky white: fpeculum of the wings blueilh green, in-
clofed in a line of black : legs dulky alh-colour.
This inhabits New Zealand. Found both in Charlotte Sound
and Dufky Bay. Known there by the name of He-turrera. From
the drawings of Sir Jofeph Banks.
4M
SUPERCILIOUS
D.
D escription.
Place.
Pied Duck, ArS. Zool. N° 488. 46.
PIED D.
C I Z E of the Wild Duck : length nineteen inches. Bill two Descriptioh.
° inches and a quarter; the bafe of it, and round the noftrils,
for about one-third, orange; the under mandible dulky . head and
neck rufous white, the feathers of the crown rifing in a narrow
ridge, along the top of which runs a narrow ftripe of black to
the nape : round the middle of the neck a collar of black,
which palfes down the middle, at the back part of the neck, quite
to the back: the fcapulars are white; fome of the inner ones
V o l . III. 3 S edSed