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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the male being adorned in spring and summer with a richand delicate plumage; while the female is of a more uniform and sombre tint. The male has the head and upper part of the neck deep brown glossed with green; lower part of theneck, breast, scapulars, and sides of the rump white; back blackish brown, each feather margined with greyand tinged with green ; lesser wing-coverts and outer webs of some of the scapularies greyish blue ; tips ofthe larger coverts white forming a bar across the wing; speculum rich green ; tertials rich purplish blackwith a streak of white down the centre; middle tail-feathers brown edged with white, outer ones entirelywhite ; upper and under tail-coverts black tinged with green ; under surface yellowish brown with zigzaglines of black upon the flanks and vent; bill blackish brown. The female has the whole of the upper surface deep brown, each feather barred and margined with reddishwhite. We have figured a male and female, rather less than the natural size.
Text Appearing After Image:
Q pq Q Genus ANAS, Linn. Gent. Char. Bill longer than the head, depressed through its whole length, broad, straightfrom before the nostrils to the tip, nearly equal in breadth throughout; mandibles dentato-laminate, with the laminae of the upper mandible scarcely projecting beyond the margin.Nostrils lateral, oval, situated near the base of the bill. Wings of mean length, acuminate.Tail short, slightly wedge-shaped; the middle feathers curling upwards in some species.Feet with four toes, three before and one behind; the front ones webbed, the hind toesmall and free. COMMON WILD DUCK. Anas Boschas, Linn.Le Canard ordinaire. The circumstances attending the domestication of the Duck, like that of many other reclaimed animals, areburied in obscurity; and it is impossible to decide whether the attention of man was directed to it in conse-quence of the superiority of its flesh as an article of food, or whether of all the Duck tribe he found it mostnaturally inclined to submit to the arts of

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