British game birds and wildfowl (1855) (14771063823)

Identifier: britishgamebirds00morr (find matches)
Title: British game birds and wildfowl
Year: 1855 (1850s)
Authors: Morris, Beverley Robinson Fawcett, Benjamin, 1808-1893, engraver
Subjects: Game and game-birds Birds Birds
Publisher: London : Groombridge and Sons ...
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



Text Appearing Before Image:
ellow; cheeks and back of neck, chestnut;chin and throat, black. Back, scapulars, and sides, grayish white, irregularly wavedwith fine zig-zag lines of black. Upper tail coverts, speckled with gray; tail, brownishblack, the feathers pointed and elongated. Primaries, hair brown; secondaries, black atthe base and tip; the centre a fine green, forming the speculum or beauty spot; tertialshave the inner webs gray, the outer ones black with an edging of white. Wing coverts,white; the greater with black tips. LoAver neck and breast, pale reddish gray; bellyand vent, white; under tail coverts, pure black; legs and feet, dark brown. The female has the head and neck brownish yellow, covered with dark brown spots;feathers of back, brown with paler edges; breast, belly, aud vent, white. In the summer the males approximate in plumage to the females, and do not regaintheir beauty till after the autumnal moult. The young males resemble the females. In length the adult male measures eighteen inches.
Text Appearing After Image:
221 AMEEICAX TVIGEOX. Anas Americana, .... \Tilsox. Mareea Americana, .... Stephens. Anas—A Duck. Americana—American. The first notice of the occurrence of this Duck in England, was contained in theNaturalist, (old series,) Tolume iii. It is there stated by Mr. E. Blyth. that Mr.Bartlett had procured a male in the London market, in the winter of 1837-38. It wasamong a lot of the Common Wigeon, and he picked it out, thinking it a variety of thecommon species; there was a female among the same lot, which, however, he unfortunatelydid not secure, looking upon it merely as a slight variety. Mr. Thompson satisfiedhimself that a male specimen had been shot on Strangford Lough, by a wildfowl shooter.He thus records the fact:—Henry Bell, an intelligent man of middle age. who, sincehe could carry a gun, has been a Wigeon shooter in Belfast Bay, visited StrangfordLough professionally towards the end of February, 1844, with his punt and swivel gun.Hearing, on a dark night, the call of Wige