ANATIN^ — THE DUCKS — ANAS. 503 



Anas fulvigula. 



THE FLORIDA DUSKY DUCK. 



Anas obscura, vax. fulvigula, Ridgw. Am. Nat. VIII. Feb. ISTi, 111 (St. John's R. Fla.). 



Anas obscura, h. fulvigula, CouES, Birds N. W. 1874, 561. 



Anas obscura fulvigula, Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 709. 



Alias fulvigula, Ridgw. Proc. V. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. I. 1878, 251 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 603. 



Hab. Florida (resident) ; Cuba? 



Sp. Char. Adult : Colors brownish black and ochraceous in nearly eqiial amount, the former 

 in the centre and the latter on the margin of the feathers ; many of the feathers, especially the 

 scapulars and long feathers of the sides and flanks, witli a second V-shaped mark of ochraceous 

 inside the marginal one. Entire throat and chin immaculate delicate ochraceous, or deep cream- 

 color. Speculum deep metallic green (rarely purplish), with a faint purple or blue tinge in some 

 lights, tipped broadly with velvety black ; last row of coverts brownish black, broadly tipped with 

 velvety black and with a subteruiinal bar of deep ochraceous. Bill olive-yellow, the margin and 

 base of the maxilla, especially below, black ; feet deep orange-red. Wing, 10.00-10.50 inches; tail, 

 5.00 ; culmen, 2.05-2.35 ; width of the bill, .90 ; tarsus, 1.70-1.80 ; middle toe, 1.90-2.00. 



This well-marked and apparently very local species resembles A. obscura in general appearance, 

 particularly in the absence of white bars on the wing, but is very much lighter in color, the 

 entire chin and throat, as well as the greater part of the foreneck, being immaculate creamy 

 buff, whereas these parts in A. obscura are thickly streaked with dusky ; the speculum is more 

 often green than violet, the contrary being the case in A. obscura. An apparently constant point 

 of distinction is to be found in the bill, the maxilla in A. obscura being olivaceous to the extreme 

 base, while in A. fulvigula the base is margined l^y a narrow black line which widens out into a 

 triangular space near the rictus or beneath the feathering of the loi-es. 



Specimens vary chiefly in the color of the speculum, which ranges from bright grass-green to 

 violet, the former being the usual color. As in the Dusky Duck, the under wing-coverts and 

 axillars are pure white. 



What has been supposed to be only a smaller southern race of the common Dusky 

 Duck has for some time been known to exist in Florida. It is now recognized as a 

 distinct and valid resident form, confined to southern regions exclusively. It is also 

 probable that the Dusky Ducks known to be resident in South Carolina may also be 

 referable to this species rather than to A. ohscura. 



For the history of its peculiar habits I am indebted to Mr. N. B. Moore ; its exist- 

 ence being first made known to him, in 1869, by his killing several adults and meeting 

 with a brood of nine young. An informant of Mr. Moore, Avho has lived sixty-six years 

 in Florida — and for twenty-five years on Sarasota Bay — informed him that it was 

 unknown to him until within the last six years, when he killed a few on the Sarasota. 

 This Duck hatches in Florida from the first to the last of April, only one set of eggs 

 being laid in a season, unless it fails in raising its first brood. The nest is always 

 placed on the ground, and the number of eggs is usually nine or ten. In one instance 

 a nest Avas discovered which Avas nearly three hundred yards from water, and other 

 nests were met with still farther from Avater. The one first referred to was cautiously 

 concealed in a thick mass of dead grass held upright by green palmettoes, about tAvo 

 feet high. Mr. Moore once noticed a pair of Ducks fly from a pond, near which he 

 was seated, and pass over the pine-barrens. One of them dro])ped among the grass ; 

 the other returned to the water. Suspecting that the birds might have a nest, he 

 visited the locality the next day, when the birds behaved as before. He soon made 

 his Avay to the spot Avhere the female alighted, and found her in a somewhat open 

 space. On her return to the pond he soon discovered her nest. It Avas carefully 



