924 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LAMELLIROSTRES — ANSERES. 



down to 7.50; tail 2.50; tarsus 1.50; middle toe and claw 2.30; bill averaging 1.75 along 

 ciilmen, ranging l.fiO-l.UO ; its greatest width probably never 1.00. It is difficult to define 

 this bird specifically, but it appears to preserve its characters, though constantly associated 

 with the last. North America at large; breeds from the northern borders of the U. S. north- 

 ward, nesting commonly in parts of N. Dakota; winters in and migrates through the U. S. 

 to Central America and West Indies. This is the common Scaup in winter in most parts of 

 the U. S. — in Florida often in "rafts" of thousands. Its nest and eggs (6-12) are indistin- 

 guishable from those of the foregoing, but the eggs average smaller, about 2.25 X 160. 

 Aythya affinis of A. 0. U. 



F. colla'ris. (Lat. collaris, pertaining to colluni, the neck : collared.) Ring-necked Di:ck. 

 Ring-necked Scaup. Ring-necked Black-head. Ring-billed Black-head. Ring 

 BILLED Shuffler. Ring-bill. Moon-bill. Marsh Blue-bill. Bastard Broad- 

 bill. Black-jack. Bunty. (Popular fancy has thus seized upon the peculiar parti- 

 colored bill, and not the ring round the neck, for most names of the bird.) Adult i$ : 

 A chestnut or orange-brown ring round neck. Speculum bluish-gray (not M'hite). Bill 

 dark slate, broadly black at end, the base and edges, and a belt near end of upper mandible, 

 pale bluisli. Iris yellow. Feet grayish-blue, with dusky webs. Head and neck above 

 collar lustn)us black, with green, violet, and purple iridescence ; extreme chin white. Lower 

 neck, fore breast, and upper parts generally, blackish ; scapulars scarcely waved or only dotted 

 with grayish. Crissum black ; under parts generally, including axillaries, and most of the 

 lining of wings, white; lower belly and sides finely waved with black; the white solid on 

 breast, where sharp-edged against black, but behind gradually passing into black of crissum 

 through wavy markings ; under wing-coverts mixed gray and white. Wings plain dark 

 brown or fuscous, the gray speculum formed by outer webs of some of the secondaries, which 

 may be uniform, or a little darker at their ends, and very narrowly tipped with white ; 

 primaries blackish on outer webs and tips, otherwise dark gray. Tail of 16 blackish feathers. 

 Adult 9 • No collar ; head umber-brown, darker on top, with whitish cheeks and chin, 

 and white eye-ring ; other black parts of ^ dark brownish ; under parts less extensively and 

 less purely white without any of the fine vermiculation of the ^, only a space on the breast 

 and belly white, the fore breast, sides, and flanks being plain light umber-brown ; wing and 

 its speculum as before ; markings of bill obscure ; eyes and feet as before. Young ^ resem- 

 bling the 9 . In some 9 or immature plumages this bird closely resembles the corresponding 

 states of the Red-head ; but it is much smaller, to say nothing of its generic distinctions. 

 Downy ducklings grayish-brown above, with a bufi" spot in median line of fore back, on each 

 side of back and of rump, and along hind border of winglets; forehead, sides of head, and 

 under parts dingy buff, with a spot of grayish-brown on the ear-coverts and a brown bar across 

 flanks. Length 16.00-18.00; extent 30.00 or less; wing 7.50-8.00; tail 2.75; tarsus 1.25; 

 bill 1.75, not so much widened at end as that of the Scaups. North America at large ; breeds 

 from some of northern interior and Western U. S., but chiefly beyond, to far north ; one Maine 

 record ; winters in and migrates through U. S. to Central America and West Indies ; accidental in 

 Europe. Eggs 6-12, 2.25 X 1-60, pale greenish-gray or drab, indistinguishable from those of 

 the foregoing. This very distinct Scaup, which represents in this country the European Tufted 

 Duck, F. fuligula, and consequently comes nearest to being the type of the genus, was origi- 

 nally discovered by Lewis and Clark on the Columbia River at Deer Island, March 28, 1806, 

 and fully described from a specimen in the dress of the 9 or young ^ : see my edition of the 

 History of the Expedition, 1893, p. 888. It was first named Anas collaris, and figured from a 

 specimen taken in England : see Donovan, Brit. B. vi, pi. 147, 1809. A. fuligula WiLs. 1814, 

 pi. 67, fig. 5. A. rvfitorqties, Ord, 1825. Aythya collaris of A. O. IT. 



.^THY'lA. (Gr. aWvia, aithuia, a kind of water-bird in Homer's Odyssey and Aristotle's 

 Natural History first rendered in modern ornithology Aythya BoiE, Isis, 1822, p. 564, type 



