( 30 ) ORD. III. GEN. XI. DUCK. SPE. IV. VELVET DUCK. PI. 248. Anas fiifca. Lin. Syjl. I. p. 196. La grande Macreufe. Brif. Om. VI. p. 423. The male velvet duck weighs near three pounds. The fides and end of the bill are orange colour •, from the noftrils it is black, rifing in a knob at the bafe j and the under mandible is much Ihorter than the upper: the head, neck, back, breaft, and tail, are of a glofiy velvet black: wings, and belly, of a brown black: the lefs wing coverts are tipped with white, forming a broadilh line acrofs the wings; and from the eye flanting to the back of the neck, there is a white line : legs, reddifh brown. The female wants the flelhy knob, or rifing, at the bafe of the bill, and is of a blackilh brown coloured plumage. This fpecies is an inhabitant of the northern parts of Europe and America, and is fometimes, though rarely, feen on the fea fhores of Great Britain. It feeds on Ihell-filh.