Although in external appearance and habits it exhibits some affinity to the Rails, its digestive organs have no resemblance to theirs.
An egg presented by Dr Brewer of Boston measures two inches in length by one inch and a half, and is of a broadly oval shape, rather pointed at the smaller end, and of a uniform dull olivaceous tint.
BREWER’S DUCK.
Anas Breweri.
PLATE CCCXXXVIII. Male.
The beautiful Duck from which I made the drawing copied on the plate before you, was shot on Lake Barataria, in Louisiana, in February 1822. It was in company with seven or eight Canvass-back Ducks. No other individuals of the species were in sight at the time, and all my efforts to procure another have been ineffectual.
You will see that this curious bird is named in the plate “Anas glocitans,” the descriptions of that species having induced me to consider it identical with this. But on comparing my drawing with specimens in the Museum of the Zoological Society of London, I found that the former represents a much larger bird, which, besides, is differently coloured in some of its parts. The individual figured was a male; but I have some doubts whether it had acquired the full beauty of its mature plumage, and I considered it at the time as a bird of the preceding season.
In form and proportions this bird is very nearly allied to the Mallard, from which it differs in having the bill considerably narrower, in wanting the recurved feathers of the tail, in having the feet dull yellow in place of orange-red, the speculum more green and duller, without the white bands of that bird, and in the large patch of light red on the side of the head. It may possibly be an accidental variety, or a hybrid between that bird and some other species, perhaps the Gadwall, to which also it bears a great resemblance.
Bill nearly as long as the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed and widened towards the end, rounded at the tip, the lamellæ short and numerous, the unguis obovate, curved, the nasal groove elliptical, the nostrils oblong.
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed; neck rather long and slender; body full, depressed. Feet short, stout, placed behind the centre of the body; legs bare a little above the joint; tarsus short, a little compressed, anteriorly with small scutella, laterally and behind with reticulated angular scales. Hind toe very small, with a narrow free membrane; third toe longest, fourth a little shorter; claws small, arched, compressed, acute.
Plumage dense, soft, and elastic; of the hind head and neck short and blended; of the other parts in general broad and rounded. Wings of moderate length, acute; tail short, graduated.