to the Ducks; they run more or less through the geese and mergansers. The following sketch will illustrate our meaning:

2

3

1. Is the larynx of the Goosander, a species of Merganser.

2. Of the Anas rufina.

3. Is a section of a portion of the tube of the Velvet Duck, showing the osseous enlargement.

The anatomical peculiarities of the larynx in Ducks do not however end here. Added to dilatations and contractions of the tube, it not unfrequently happens that the inferior larynx, or portion whence the bronchi diverge, is formed into a hollow drum or labyrinth, consisting chiefly of bone, or is furnished with a bony hollow drum, as it were, attached to it. In elucidation of our meaning,

we subjoin the following three sketches, which represent this part in the Gadwall, the King Duck, and the male Musk Duck.

THE GADWALL DUCK.

THE KING DUCK.

THE MUSK DUCK.

SECTION I.THE TRUE DUCKS.

As the genera are here numerous and formed on somewhat arbitrary grounds, we shall not attempt to follow them out, but proceed to give a few examples of our section.

The MALLARD, or Wild Duck, (Anas Boschas,) is smaller, more sprightly and active, and far more beautiful than the dull domestic stock of which this species is the original; few of the tribe display a more elegant and

exquisitely pencilled plumage than the present. Spread almost universally over the globe, it is indigenous in the British islands, breeding in our fens and marshes; the male and female pair as other birds in general, but do not mutually assist each other in the duties of incubation and in the care of the young brood, for when the female begins to sit, the male deserts her, "and joins others of his sex similarly situated; so that it is usual to see the Mallards after May in small flocks by themselves.”

In general the nest is made among the herbage, close to the water, but instances are on record of this bird having chosen the deserted nest of a crow, or magpie, in which to rear its brood. Latham states, that at Etchingham, in Sussex, one was discovered sitting on nine eggs, which were laid on a sort of frame-work of twigs, arranged crosswise, in an oak twenty-five feet from the ground; and Colonel Montagu mentions one which made a nest in Rumford tower, hatched her young, and brought them down in safety to a piece of water at a considerable distance. Though the Mallard breeds with us, and on the adjacent parts of the continent, it must nevertheless be regarded as migratory in its habits, especially in more northern latitudes, whence great numbers journey southwards on the approach of winter, sojourn in our climate, as well as in various parts of the south of Europe, and return northwards, to their breeding places, on the commencement of spring.

The flesh of the Wild Duck is highly esteemed; hence various devices have been resorted to in order to effect a wholesale capture for the supply of the markets. Of these the decoy (a contrivance by which the flocks are allured into nets at the extremity of an artificial canal or long trench filled with water, leading out of the lake or marsh,) is the most successful. "In ten of these decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, it is recorded that 31,200 Wild Fowl were taken in one season, of which more than two-thirds were of the present species.

The habits and colouring of this bird require no detailed account; we may, however, observe that the trachea of the male Mallard, is furnished at its inferior

part with a bony labyrinth, not unlike that of the Gadwall, but larger.

The next example is the SUMMER DUCK, or Wood Duck of America, (Anas sponsa,) which has perhaps no equal for beauty among all its race.

The Summer-Duck is extensively spread over the whole of the United States of America, and is equally common in Mexico and several of the West India Islands. Its favourite haunts are the solitary, deep, and muddy creeks, ponds, and mill-dams, in the interior of the country, the shore being rarely visited. In the northern districts it is migratory, being a summer visitor for the purpose of breeding; but in the hotter parts it appears to stay the whole of the year. "In Pennsylvania," says Wilson, "the female usually begins to lay late in April, or early in May. Instances have been known where the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in the fork of the branches; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree is selected for this purpose. On the 18th of May I visited a tree, containing the nest of a Summer Duck, on the banks of Tuckahoe river, New Jersey. It was an old

grotesque white oak, whose top had been torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hollow and broken top, and about six feet down on the soft decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs snugly covered with down from the breast of the bird. These eggs were of an exact oval shape, less than those of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained and of the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resembling old polished ivory.” "This tree

had been occupied probably by the same pair for four successive years in breeding time; the person who gave me the information, and whose house was within twenty or thirty yards of the tree, said that he had seen the female, the spring preceding, carry down thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes. She caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the neck, and landed them safely at the foot of the tree, whence she afterwards led them to the water. Under this same tree at the time I visited it, a large sloop lay on the stocks nearly finished ; the deck was not more than twelve feet distant from the nest, yet, notwithstanding the presence and noise of the workmen, the Ducks would not abandon their old breeding place, but continued to pass out and in as if no person had been near. The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and kept watch while the female was laying, and often also while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hollow space at the root of the same tree to lay and hatch her young in. The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more than three or four individuals together, and most commonly in pairs or singly." The food of this elegant bird consists of acorns, grain, the seeds of plants, and insects.

In captivity the Summer Duck becomes very tame and familiar; so that there is little doubt that with care it might be naturalized as a common denizen of our poultryyards or ornamental waters.

Top of the head and pendent crest, rich glossy bronze green, ending in violet, elegantly marked with a line of pure white running from the upper mandible over the eye, and with another band of white proceeding from