Anas Bernicla, Brent Goose. Brown ; head, brea.st and neck black, the latter with a lateral white spot : tail-coverts and vent white : plentiful on the sea coast of North America in autumn. It is consi dered by Mr. Wilson as the same with the Barnacle C.00se (A. Ery-thropus.) Anas molissima, or eider duck. This wild, but valuable, species is of a size be tween the goose and the domestic duck, and appears to be one of the graduated links of the chain which connects the two kinds. The full-grown old males gene rally measure about two feet two inches n leng-th,and two feet eighteen i n breadth , and weigh from six to above seven pounds The female is nearly of the same shape, though less than the male, weighing only between five and six pounds; but her ph image is quite different, the ground co lour being of a reddish brown, prettily crossed with waved black lines; and in some specimens the neck, breast, and belly, are tinged with ash : die wings are crossed with two bars of white : quills dark : the neck is marked with longitudi nal dusky streaks, and the belly is deep brown, spotted obscurely with black. The eider duck lays from three to five large, smooth, pale, olive-coloured eggs ; these she deposits and conceals in a nest, or bed, made of a great quantity of the soft, warm, elastic down, plucked from her own breast, and sometimes from that of her mate. The ground-work or founda tion of the nest is formed of bent-grass, sea•weeds, or such like coarse materials, and it is placed in as sheltered a spot as the bleak and solitary place can afford. In Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lap land, and some parts of the coast of Nor way, the eiders flock together, in particu lar breeding places, in such numbers, and their nests are so close together, that a person in walking along can hardly avoid treading upon them. The natives of these cold climates eagerly watch the time when the first hatchings of the eggs are laid : of these they rob the nest, and also of the more important article, the down with which it is lined, which they carefully gather and.carry off. These birds will af terwards strip themselves of their remain ing down:and lay a second hatching, of which also they are sometimes robbed : but it is said, that when this cruel treat ment is too often repeated, they leave the place, and return to it no more. The quantity ofthis valuable commodity,which is thus anuually collected in various parts, ig uncertain. Buffon mentions one par ticular year, in which the Icelandic com pany sold as much as amounted to upwards of eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling. This, however, must be only a small por tion of the produce, which is all sold by the hardy natives, to stuff the couches of the pampered citizens of more polished nations. Thereat body of these birds constantly resides the remote northern, frozen climates, the rigours of which their thick clothing well enables them to bear. They are said to keep together in flocks in the open parts of the sea, fishing and diving very deep in quest of shell-fish and other food, with which the bottom is co vered ; and when they have satisfiedthem selves, they retire to the shore, whither they at all times repair for shelter, on the approach of a storm. Other less numerous
flocks of the eiders branch out, colonize, and breed further southward, in both Eu rope and America : they are found on the promontories and numerous isles of the coast of Norway, and on those of the nor thern, and the Hebrides or western isles of Scotland, and also on the Fern isles, on the Northumberland coast, which latter ig the only place where they are known to breed in England, and may be said to be their utmost southern Hiram that quarter, although a few solitary instances of single birds' being shot further southward along the coast have sometimes happened.
Anas Manilla, scaup duck, or Blue-bill. This species measures, When stretched out, nearly twenty inches in length, and thirty-two in breadth. The bill is broad and flat, more than two inches long, from the corners ofthe mouth to the tip, and of a fine pale blue or lead colour, with the nail black : irides bright deep yellow : the head and upper half of the neck are black, glossed with green : the lower part of the latter, and the breast, are of a sleek plain the throat, rump, upper and under coverts of the tail, and part of the thighs, are of the same colour, but dull and more inclining to brown. The tail, when spread out, is fan-shaped, and consists of fourteen short, brown feathers. The legs are short, toes long, and as well as the outer or la teral webs of the inner toes, are of a dirty pale blue colour; all the joints and the rest of the webs are dusky. These birds are said to vary greatly in their plumage, as well as size ; but those which have come under the author's observation were all nearly alike. The scaup duck, like others of the samegenus, quits the rigours of the dreary north in the winter months, and in that season only is met with on various parts of the American shores. It is well known in England.
Arias Clangula, the golden-eye. The weight of this species varies from twenty six ounces to two pounds. The length is nineteen inches, and the breadth thirty one. These birds do not congregate in large flocks, they are varied with black and white; head tumid, violet ; at each corner of the mouth a white spot. They are frequent in the waters of the United States during the winter, and take their departure northward in the spring. In their flight they make the air whistle with the rigorous quick strokes of their wings; they are excellent divers; and seldom set foot on the shore;upon which, it is said, they walk with great apparent difficulty, and, except in the breeding season, only repair to it for the purpose of taking their repose. The attempts which were made by NI. Baillon to domesticate these birds, he informs the Count de Buffon, quite failed of success. See Plate IR Ares, fig. 1 to 5.