BIRDS OF KANSAS. 57 



Anas fulvigula maculosa (Sexx.). 



MOTTLED DUCK. 

 PLATE IV. 



Kare. Arrive about the middle of March. 



B. . R. . C. . G, , . U. 1.34a. 



Habitat. Texas (probably New Mexico), north to Kansas. 



Sp. Char. Top of head blackish brown, margined with very pale buff; chin 

 and throat Isabella color; cheeks buffy white with narrow streaks of dark brown. 

 Featiiers of breast, wings, npper parts and flanks blackish brown margined with 

 pale bnff. Under parts bnfty white, each feather with a broad, blackish-brown 

 spot near the tip, giving a decided mottled appearance. Under tail coverts 

 blackish, with outer margin of inner web reddish buff, that of outer web buffy 

 white. The four median feathers of tail blackish brown; the others fuscous, 

 margined with pale buff, having a V-shaped mark as in A. fulvigula, but of a 

 buffy white. Under surface of all tail feathers light gray, excepting the four 

 median, which are blackish brown. Lining of wing white. Speculum metallic 

 purple, feathers tipjjed with white. Bill has small black spot on base of lower 

 edge of upper mandible, as in A. fulvigula; feet reddish orange. Wing 10.05; 

 culmen 2.2.5; tarsus l.T.j; middle toe and claw, 1..50 inches. (Sennett.) 



Female similar to the male, except that the black spot at the 

 base of the upper mandible is much paler. (A specimen de- 

 scribed by Mr. Sennett is wholly without marking.) Iris dark 

 brown; webs pale dusky; claws blackish. 



In my Revised Catalogue I entered this bird 2^^ Anan fulvigula. ' 

 In The Auk,Yol. 6, p. 263, Mr. Sennett described a new Duck 

 from Texas as a species, viz. . Anas maculosa^ which I found up- 

 on examination to be the Kansas bird, instead of the Florida, 

 as given. In the examination, however, I reached the conclu- 

 sion that the difference existing between the two birds was not 

 sufficient to warrant a specific separation, but rather a sub-spe- 

 cific one. I therefore, at the annual meeting of the A. O. U. , 

 in 1889, called the attention of the council to the same, and 

 they by a unanimous vote sustained the conclusions reached, 

 and named the bird Anas fulvigula maculosa., as now entered. 



In habits the birds are more like the Mallard than the Black 

 Duck, inasmuch as they are seldom found upon the open salt 



