WATER BIRDS. 



77 



can be erected so as to form a complete semicircle making the most conspicious crest worn 

 by any of our ducks. The back is mainly black, the tertiaries and scapulars sharply 

 streaked with pure white. The under parts from lower neck to tail are pure white; the 

 sides and flanks finely barred with black or dark brown on a pale rufous groimd. Just in 

 front of the shoulders the black of the back extends downward on the sides of the upper 

 breast forming two conspicuous black horns or points, which however, do not meet in front. 

 These points are bordered in front and behind by a few narrow black and white bars. The 

 wings are dusky; the speculum white. The adult female has tlie black of the head and 

 neck replaced by reddish-brown of varying depth, with the upper throat white, and with 

 only a small crest which is usually distinctly cinnamon. The lower breast and belly are 

 white; the sides ashy, and the back brownish-black. The fully grown young resemble the 

 female, but have no crest. 



Total length of adult, 17 to 19 inches; wing, 7.50 to 7.90; culmcn, 1.50. 



33. Mallard. Anas platyrhynchos Limi. (132) 



Synonyms: Conunon Wild Duck; Green-head (male); Gray Duck and Gray Mallard 

 (female). — Anas boschas, Linn., 1766, and of most authors. 



Figures 12 and 13. 



In full plumage known at once by its resemblance to the ordinary barn- 

 yard duck which is simply the domesticated form of the wild bird. The 

 blue-green or purple speculum, bordered along both edges by black and 

 white, marks the bird in any plumage. 



Distribution. — Northern parts of Northern Hemisphere; in America 

 south to Panama and Cuba, breeding southward to southern United 

 States; less common in the east. 



This duck is too well known to need any extended description, being 

 probably the most abundant species of duck found in this state. It is 

 one of the best table birds 



among the water fowl, and ^ f) ^ ^ '/ 



is hunted therefore with 

 appropriate ardor. 



The Mallard reaches 

 southern Michigan in 

 spring from the first to 

 the 15th of March, the 

 average date being not 

 far from the 10th, and 

 it passes northward as rap- 

 idly as the lakes and 

 streams open, affording a 

 safe food supply. In 

 autumn the southward 

 movement begins certainly 

 as early as September 1, 

 although the period of 

 greatest abundance is 

 nearer October 1, and the 

 birds often linger at favor- 

 able places until early No- 

 vember, in fact until the first ice forms 

 of this species, but since it sometimes 



Fig. 12. MalUucl. 



From Baird, Brewer & Ridgway's Water Birds of North 



America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 



. We have no winter records 

 winters in numbers in north- 

 ern Ohio,' Indiana, and even in southern Wisconsin, it is not improbable 

 that it sometimes does so in southern Michigan. 



This is a typical marsh or shallow water duck, getting its food by "dab- 

 bling" and wading, or frequently by walking about on the shore. It 



