File:Reptiles and birds - a popular account of their various orders, with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting (1883) (14565900307).jpg

Identifier: reptilesbirds00figu (find matches)
Title: Reptiles and birds : a popular account of their various orders, with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894 Gillmore, Parker
Subjects: Reptiles Birds
Publisher: London : Cassell & Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ns of its plumage. It is larger and stands higheron its legs than the common Wild Duck. The plumage is full, soft,and blended; the feathers of the head and upper neck are small andsilky. The colours are very brilliant, being of a glossy blackishgreen on the head and neck, witli purplish reflections in some lights;a broad band or ring of white is found on the neck, and loweranother of orange-red encircles the fore part of the body. The restof the under parts are white, with a band of glossy black on thebieast and belly; the back white, variegated with black, white,russet, and green. The Shieldrake abounds on the coasts of the 230 REPTILES AND BIRDS. Baltic and North Sea; it is also found in America, and on thesouthern coasts of France, as well as on the edge of the NorthernOcean. The nest is usually placed in some indentation in the sand,the female frequently choosing a rabbits hole, situated in a sand-bank. The poor rabbit, thus turned out of its burrow, never venturesto return to it.
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Fig 87.—The Shieldrake. The Eider Duck (Anas molissimd). The Eider Duck, though remarkable for beauty of plumage, isnevertheless a very clumsy bird. In form it is bulky, depressed,and elliptical, with large, oblong, and compressed head. Theplumage is dense and fine ; the head-feathers are short, tufted, androunded, and, blending with the terminal filaments, disunited; thewings diminutive, concave, narrow, and pointed, the tips of which THE EIDER DUCK. 231 extend to the base of the tail, which is short, round, and sHghtlydecurvated. The Eider Duck is the northern bird which supplies the soft,light, and warm material which is so well known under the nameof eider-down. Its plumage is whitish, but the upper part of thehead, its belly, and its tail are black; the side of the head, thethroat, and the neck, are white, but the hair-like feathers on the backpart of the cheeks and nape are of a delicate pale green; the lowerpart of the neck is cream-coloured. The black parts, from theirglossi

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