ANATIN^ — THE DUCKS — MARECA. 



521 



riorly, velvety black posteriorly ; tertials velvety black, sharply edged with white, the lower one 

 with its lower edge entirely pure white ; primaries plain dark cinereous. Eump cinereous, minutely 

 undulated on the edges of the feathers ; upper tail-coverts velvety black, the inner webs mostly 

 grayish ; tail hoary cinereous. Bill light grayish blue, the end black ; iris brown ; legs and feet 

 light bluish. Wing, 10.25-10.75 inches ; culmen, 1.30-1.50 ; tarsus, 1.45-1.65 ; middle toe, 1.65- 



J/. americana. 





';,r'f 



1.85. Adult female : Above, dusky grayish brown, ■with transverse, rather distant, bars of dull white 

 or light ochraceous. Wing-coveits dark dull cinereous, broadly tipped and bordered witli white ; 

 speculum dull black. Head and neck streaked with blackish upon a dull whitish ground, the 

 former color prevailing on the nape and behind the eye. Jugulum pale graj'ish vinaceous, the 

 feathers darker beneath the surface ; sides and flanks deeper vinaceous ; lower tail-coverts trans- 

 versely spotted with brown ; rest of lower parts pure white. Young male : Similar to the adult 

 female, but the colors more pronounced and the pat- 

 tern better defined, especially on the wing. Downy 

 young : Above, dark olive, -with a sepia tinge ; a spot 

 of pale greenish fulvous on the posterior half of the 

 wing, one on each .side of the back, and one on each 

 side of the rump. Lower parts, including head and 

 neck, pale fulvous ; a distinct blackish olive stripe from 

 bill to and back from the eye, with a wide and con- 

 spicuous superciliary stripe of fulvous above it. 



The chief variation in the plumage of adult males 

 of this species consists in the extent of the green patch 

 and the amount of black spotting on the head, the 

 pureness of the white on the forehead, and the extent 

 of the white patch on the wing-coverts. The green 

 patch on the side of the occiput is usually poorly de- 

 fined, and broken up by lighter spotting ; but in No. 

 21-126, Washington, D. C, and No. 84712, from South- 

 ern Ohio (Dr. F. W. Langdon), it is as conspicuous as 



in the adult male of Nettion carolinensis, and of very similar extent and form. Anteriorly, it sur- 

 rounds the eye, and posteriorly it passes down the nape (where the two opposite spaces are con- 

 fluent for the entire length of the neck) ; its outlines are firm throughout, and its surface is entirely 

 unbroken by admixture of white. In the former specimen the black spotting is so aggregated on 

 the throat that the gular region is almost uniformly dusky, while the spots at the lower end of 

 the white portion of the neck are .so large as almost to blend into a collar, uniting the green of the 

 VOL I. — 66 



Male. 



