Plate CCLXXVI. Male and Female.
Upper mandible with a soft tumid compressed substance at the base,
extending perpendicularly upon the forehead, and by a medial band of
feathers divided into two broad lobes; tail much rounded, of fourteen
stiff feathers. Male with the bill flesh-coloured. The sides of the
upper mandible and soft frontal lobes bright orange; band of feathers
separating the frontal lobes and margining their upper and posterior
edges, lower eyelid, and a forked patch on the throat, black; upper
part of head ash-grey; hair-like feathers on the sides of the head
pale bluish-green; fore neck cream-coloured; sides and hind part of
neck, a patch on the wings, and another on each side of the rump,
white; hind part of back, scapulars, large wing-coverts, and secondary
quills, brownish-black, the latter glossed with green; primary quills
and tail blackish-brown; breast and abdomen blackish-brown; lower
wing-coverts white, the outer brown. Female with the bill shorter,
pale greenish-grey, with the tumid basal lobes scarcely apparent, so
that the forehead is low; head and neck pale greyish-yellow, with
small lines of brownish-black; feathers of the back brownish-black
towards the end, with yellowish-grey edges; the scapulars brownish-red
on the margins; quills and tail-feathers deep greyish-brown; fore part
of neck, breast, sides, and lower tail-coverts, with a central mark
and submarginal band of brownish-black, the middle of the breast
scarcely spotted, being of the general colour of the lower parts,
which is pale yellowish-brown.
_Male_, 25; wing, 11-1/4. _Female_, 20; wing, 10-1/2.
Rare in Massachusetts during winter. Breeds from Labrador to the
Arctic Seas.
Fuligula spectabilis, Bonap. Syn. p. 389.
Somateria spectabilis, King Duck, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor.
Amer. v. ii. p. 447.
King Duck, Fuligula spectabilis, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 414.
King Duck, Fuligula spectabilis, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p.
523.