Presently afterwards the breast of a Cock of the wood was given me to eat, by way of a bait. It had been shot this spring and dried in the sun, without being previously cooked; neither had it so many longitudinal cuts as that I have described in the foregoing pages.
As we proceeded further we saw seven or eight large white swans lying on the water, making a loud noise, and biting one another with their beaks. Cranes also are found here. The rower said he had shot one and nailed it up against the wall, with all its flesh and feathers on. What an absurdity!
The peasant who was my rower and companion had placed nets all along the shore, in which he caught plenty of pike. He had upwards of thirty small nets. The money with which he pays his taxes is chiefly acquired by fishing. A dried pike of twenty pounds weight is sold for a dollar and five marks, silver coin.
In one of the nets he found a large male Goosander caught (_Mergus Merganser_).
The bill of this bird was long and narrow, of a blood red, blackish on the upper edge. Its upper mandible longest, tipped with a hooked point which rendered it obtuse, and furnished with thirty large teeth pointing inwards. Lower mandible channelled underneath, and furnished with about forty smaller teeth, likewise pointing inwards. A triple row of very small teeth was observable in the upper mandible within the others. Tongue narrow, bordered with bristles and with a double row of very minute teeth. Nostrils oblong, placed in the substance of the bill. Eyes round, with a crimson iris. A pellucid membrane, proceeding from the inner corner of the eye, covers the ball while the bird is diving under water; which is remarkable. It has besides a whitish membrane of greater thickness (_membrana nictitans_), which closes the eye as in other birds. The head is of a grey colour, with a very long pendulous blackish crest composed of a few light downy feathers. Neck like that of a Woodcock. Breast and belly white. Middle of the back black, with white lateral spots, further on grey or whitish, with transverse undulated lines. The ten outermost large feathers of the wing are black; the inner ones black and white, so that the _speculum_, or spot of the wing, is very large and white, divided by two black transverse lines. Tail short, ash-coloured. Feet red. Legs compressed. Hind toe very small, with a membranous lobe, and curved inwards. Fore toes three, the outermost of four joints, middle one of three, and the innermost of two only. All the toes are connected by a palmate web, and the innermost has, besides, a marginal longitudinal membrane. The windpipe is remarkable, formed not of half rings, as in most birds, but of circular ones. About the middle it is dilated into a sort of bag, and further down into another smaller one[22].