:ft ■• '•Vi'- ••:^K 



N^^. 







(texus AIX BoiK. 

 AIX SPONSA (Lixx.). 



4.-). Wood Duck. (144) 



Male : — Head crested, metallic green and purj)le ; line above and behind the 

 eve, white : throat, white ; above, coppery black with a gloss of green and 

 purple; beneath, white; upper part of the breast, chestnut; sides, buffy, very 

 finely variegated with black ; the shoidder bordered also with black ; covert 

 and ([uills with nioi'e or fewer tips anil shades of white and purple. Female : — 

 Chestnut of tlie neck detached and dull ; sides, not striped ; head and neck, 

 dull; bill, reddish, edges dusky; legs and feet, yellowish; iris, red. Length, 

 19; extent, 27i ; wing, 9; tarsus, li. 



Hab. — Temperate North America, breeding thi-oughout its range. 



Nest, in a hole in a tree. 



Eggs, about twelve in numbei-, pale l)uir slightly tinged with green. 



This, the most beautiful of all our water-fowl, is very generally 

 disttributed throughout the country, ari-iving from the south about 

 the time the ice disappears from our lakes and i-iveis, and retiring 

 early in the fall. Owing to the gi'cat beauty of the male, these birds 

 are much sought after by all classes (if sportsmen, and are now seldom 

 seen except near the retired ponds and tnarshes where they breed. 

 Twentv-five years ago I used to see them leading out their young 

 from one of the inlets of the Dundas marsh. They were known at 

 that time to breed near (iage's inlet also, but of late years they have 



