Lewis and Clark Discovered This Bird 200 Years Ago

[MarshBum]

200 years ago, Lewis and Clark found themsleves on Deer Island on their way home. There, they made note of two animals, a duck and a small snake. Can you tell which duck they are talking about? Here's the excerpt from their journal (sorry, but it's kind of long):

"one of the hunters kiled a duck which appeared to be the male, it was a size less than the duckinmalard. the head neck as low as the croop, the back tail and covert of the wings were of a fine black with a smal admixture of perple about the head and neck, the beley & breast were white; some long feathers which lie underneath the wings and cover the thye were of a pale dove colour with fine black specks; the large feathers of the wings are of a dove colour. the legs are dark, the feet are composed of 4 toes each of which there are three in front connected by a web, the 4th is short flat and place high on the heel behind the leg. the tail is composed of 14 short pointed feathers. the beak of this duck is remarkably wide, and is 2 inches in length, the upper chap exceeds the under one in both length and width, insomuch that when the beak is closed the under is entirely concealed by the upper chap. the tongue, indenture of the margin of the chaps &c. are like those of the malard. the nostrils are large longitudinal and connected. a narrow strip of white garnishes the upper part or base of the upper chap – this is succeeded by a pale skye blue colour which occupys about one inch of the chap, is again succeeded by a transverse stripe of white and the extremity is of a pure black. the eye is moderately large the puple black and iris of a fine orrange yelow. the feathers on the crown of the head are longer than those on the upper part of neck and other parts of the head; these feathers give it the appearance of being crested"

Pretty remarkable, to me anyway, that 200 years ago this group of men where seeing things for the very first time... in a stretch of river I know very well. Life before the flood of europeans must have been worlds away!

Good Luck!

MarshBum

[Hunt'nFish]

Woody?
Naw, they had woodys back in the midwest. Ah I give up.

Bufflehead? Yea, that's it right?
Hunt'nFish

[MarshBum]

Nope.

Keep trying. It's common here, we all (duck hunters) know this bird (or should). I would focus on the description of the beak. That's the tell tale right there.

MarshBum

[duckdog310]

Spoony?

[Hunt'nFish]

That's what I thought at first, but the crested head threw me off.

[baltz526]

ring neck

[Limbhanger]

I second the ring neck.

[BrotherWolf]

or a greater scaup

[Forrest Seymour]

A Ruddy Duck

[BrotherWolf]

A Ruddy Duck

thats what I thought of first also but changed my mind

[The_Duck_Master]

a narrow strip of white garnishes the upper part or base of the upper chap – this is succeeded by a pale skye blue colour which occupys about one inch of the chap, is again succeeded by a transverse stripe of white and the extremity is of a pure black.

Yep, Ring-Necked

[MarshBum]

We have a winner!

It was the Ringneck Duck that he was describing.

MarshBum

[waterfowlin101]

I know I'm way late on this one but the ring neck was the obvious answer after the first second sentence describing the color "perple"

cool passage Geoff...thanks

[duckboy]

Not sure if they "discovered" the bird, but they may have been the first to document it.


That is the beginnings of an entirely new thread i suppose.

[MarshBum]

Not sure if they "discovered" the bird, but they may have been the first to document it.


That is the beginnings of an entirely new thread i suppose.

While writing this post, I was keenly aware of my use of the word "discovered" but opted to just take the easy way out.

I just wanted people to guess what the bird was.

...but you are right... "documented" would probably have been a better word.

MarshBum