Identifier: birdsEuropeVGoul (find matches)
Title: The birds of Europe
Year: 1837 (1830s)
Authors: Gould, John, 1804-1881
Subjects: Pictorial works Birds
Publisher: London, Printed by R. and J.E. Taylor, pub. by the author
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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y met with ; but the bird of thefirst year presents a considerable difference, as our Plate illustrates. Like the common Wild Duck, this bird breeds in reed beds and similar places, laying eight or nine eggs,of a pale green. The adult male has the head and the upper part of the neck dull brown, thickly marked with dirty white ;the back, scapulars and sides ornamented with narrow zigzag lines of black and white ; the middle wing-coverts chestnut, with a dash of brown in the centre ; the rump and under tail-coverts blueish black ; theshoulders chestnut, succeeded by blueish black, and a white speculum ; the feathers of the chest scale-like,having a dusky black centre, with crescent-shaped edges ; the abdomen white ; the beak black, and thetarsi orange. The young bird of the year is of a uniform rusty brown above, each feather having a central mark of duskyblack, the under surface being white. We have figured an adult male, and a bird of the first year, three fourths of the natural size.
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Q * ■Sc« RED-HEADED POCHARD. Fuligula ferina, Steph.Le Canard Milouin. This fine species may be said to represent in Europe the Canvas-backed Duck of America, so famed for itsrich and juicy flesh ; and although the flesh of the Pochard is superior to that of all the other European divingducks, still it must, we are told, yield the palm in this respect to its Western ally. The Red-headed Pochard is an article of considerable traffic in the London markets, where it is knownby the name of the Dunbird. So vast is the quantity taken during the year, that, were our information notreceived from an undoubted source, we should have hesitated in stating the amount; but we are positivelyassured that no less than fourteen thousand four hundred have been captured in one decoy, the sale of whichproduced twelve hundred pounds. Although this species is frequently taken in the usual decoys, still, we are informed by Montagu, themethod commonly practised was something similar to that of taking woodc

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