UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 121 



Linnaeus called this duck "the bride," but he 

 should have explained that the male wore the 

 nuptial dress "and that the dress was that of the 

 most colourful orientals; for this loveliest of our 

 ducks is as gorgeous in dress as "Solomon in all 

 his glory." My bird's beak, with its very dark, 

 hooked, pointed tip, had a triangle of blood-red 

 on each side at the base; from that a wide ir- 

 regular mark of pale yellow ran down the sides. 

 The top of his head was exquisite. It was pure 

 green of several shades in places, bronze-maroon 

 in others, bronzy green between. White lines 

 ran from the red at the base of the beak above the 

 eye on each side to the tip of the long crest, which 

 hung far down the back of the neck. Secondary 

 lines of white started back of the eyes and ended 

 with the crest. The eyes were large, having wide 

 circles of red around the iris. The cheeks and 

 sides of the head were dark bronze. The throat 

 was snow white, this colour rounding the cheek 

 and running up to the eye in a narrow strip, again 

 circling the side of the head and coming to a point 

 at the crest. The white came far down the 

 throat, and stopped at an even line where the 

 breast changed to a lovely shade of maroon, lighter 

 than that of the head, yet having the same bronzy 

 tints. This broad band covered the back of the 

 neck below the shoulders, shading lighter over the 

 crop, where it was flecked with almost invisible 

 feathers of white at the top, the line widening and 



