LI1'"E HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 73 



this Louisiana series is even darker than the Texas series; the breasts oi the males 

 are verj- dark, glossy chestnut, and the ground color of the cheeks and chin is dis- 

 tinctly more rufous than in the Texas series or in the Florida series. The cheeks are 

 also quite heavily streaked, and this streaking extends in all cases far below the super- 

 ciliary stripe; in the Florida ducks the streaking of the cheeks is finer and docs not 

 extend so far ventrally on to the chin, while the lores are plain buff and the chin 

 itself is paler in all cases. The pileum of the mottled ducks from Louisiana is more 

 solid black and less streaked black than is the case with the Florida birds; if anything 

 it is darker than the Texas birds. On the uppor surface of the Louisiana series and 

 the Texas series the light edges of all the feathers (back, scapulars, rump, and tail) 

 are darker and richer brown, but especially is this so in the Louisiana birds. The 

 speculum character noticed by Sennett does not seem to me to hold good. It was 

 said to be more green and less purple in fulvigula than in maculosa. 



To sum up, I should say that the only character which seems important in distin- 

 guishing A.f. maculosa and A. f. fulvigula, aside from the generally darker tone of the 

 former, is the coarser and more consistently striped head and neck of A. maculosa. 

 In all cases the feathers bordering the sides of the culmen, the lores, are dotted with 

 black in maculosa and plain buff in fulvigula. I believe the richer and more ruddy 

 ground color of the head and neck of A.f. viaculosa from Louisiana is partly due to 

 the color of the water and mud in the Vermilion Bay region. These N'crmilion Bay 

 ducks are certainly more highly colored than ducks from the Brownsville region of 

 Texas. The iorm A. fulvigula maculosa, thereiore, will probably remain as a valid 

 race. 



The characters are shght, but fairly constant, and the new form, 

 whether species or subspecies, seems to be distinct. 



Nesting. — Audubon (1S40) was the first to describe the nesting 

 habits of this duck, although at the time he did not consider it as 

 anything but a common black duck. He writes: 



On the 30th of April, 1837, my sou discovered a nest on Galveston Island, in 

 Texas. It was formed of grass and feathers, the eggs eight in number, hing on the 

 former, surrounded with the down and some feathers of the bird, to the height of 

 about 3 inches. The internal diameter of the nest was about 6 inches, and its walls 

 were nearly 3 in thickness. The female was sitting, but flew off in silence as he 

 approached. Tiie situation selected was a clump of tall slender grass, on a rather 

 sandy ridge, more than a hundred yards from the nearest water, but surrounded by 

 partially dried salt marshes. 



Mr. George F, Simmons (1915) thus describes a nest found in a 

 prairie pond near Houston, Texas: 



As is the case with all ponds in this section of prairie, the whole with the 

 exception of a small spot near tlie center was thickly covered with fall grass, ruslies, 

 water plants of various sorts, and sprinkled wilh a few bushes or reeds, locall\- known 

 as " coffee-bean'' or "senna." 



The nest itself was placed about 8 inches up in thick marsh grass and rushes, over 

 water 1 inches deep, and was neatly hidden by the tops of the grasses and rushes 

 being drawn together over the nest. It was but 2 or 3 inches thick, a slightly conca^■e 

 saucer of dead, huffy rushes and marsh grass, supported by the thick grasses and by 

 two small "coffee-bean " reeds. The lining was of smaller sections and fragments of 

 the rushes and marsh grass, and a small quantity of cotton; and the 11 eggs were well, 

 though not thickly surrounded by down and soft feathers evidently from llie breast 

 of the parent. 



