The directions of the currents were tried, and our Captain, who had an extraordinary genius for mechanics, was frequently employed in turning powder horns and other articles. So calm and sultry was the weather that we had a large awning spread, under which we took our meals, and spent the night. At length we got so wearied of it, that the very sailors I thought seemed disposed to leap overboard, and swim to land. But at length, on the thirty-seventh day after our departure, a smart breeze overtook us. Presently there was an extraordinary bustle on board; about twelve the Tortugas light-house bore north of us, and in a few hours more we gained the Atlantic. Æolus had indeed awakened from his long sleep; and on the nineteenth day after leaving the Capes of Florida, I was landed at Liverpool.
THE KING DUCK.
Fuligula spectabilis, Bonap.
PLATE CCLXXVI. Male and Female.
This beautiful species rarely advances farther south along our eastern coast than the neighbourhood of the Bay of Boston. I have, however, been assured by old and trustworthy gunners that the King Duck, about thirty years ago, was by no means of rare occurrence there during winter, and that a few had been known to breed in company with the Eider along the coast. At the period of my arrival at Labrador, the greater number of the King Ducks had proceeded farther north; and although some were seen there, we found none of their nests. I can say nothing of the habits of this bird, which, although they may be similar to those of the Eider, must yet differ in many particulars, as is the case with all birds that are nearly allied in form. The eggs of the King Duck collected by Captain James Clark Ross, R. N., measure two inches and five-eighths by one inch and three-fourths, and have a smooth shell, of an uniform dull greenish-colour.
Anas spectabilis, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. ii. p. 198.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 845.
Fuligula spectabilis, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 389.
Somateria spectabilis, King Duck, Swains. and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 447.
King Duck, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 414.
Adult Male. Plate CCLXXVI. Fig. 1.
Bill shorter than the head, much deeper than broad at the base, somewhat depressed towards the end, which is broad and rounded. Upper mandible with a soft tumid compressed substance at the base, extending perpendicularly upon the forehead, and by a medial band of feathers divided into two broad lobes, the dorsal line beyond this descending to the unguis, then slightly curved, the ridge broadly convex, the sides sloping and convex, the edges perpendicular, with about forty-five narrow internal lamellæ, the unguis very large, broadly elliptical. Nostrils submedial, oblong, large, pervious, near the ridge. Lower mandible flattened, with the angle very long, rather narrow and rounded, the dorsal line short and slightly convex, the edges with about fifty lamellæ, the unguis very large and elliptical.