126 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



In the full Juvenal plumage, which in California is complete in 

 July, the young male closely resembles the female, except that the 

 wings are more like those of the adult male; the wings are duller 

 colored and less complete than those of the adult male; the tertials 

 and the scapulars are dusky, edged with "cinnamon brown," the 

 former with a greenish sheen. During the winter and first spring 

 the young male makes steady progress toward maturity; the "mahog- 

 any red" plumage comes in on the head, neck, breast, and flanks; 

 the adult barred plumage appears on the upper back; and some of 

 the gaily colored scapulars, blue on the outer web and having a 

 buffy median stripe, are acquired. The young bird then in its first 

 spring closely resembles the adult male, except that the belly still 

 remains more or less dull brown, the colors are everywhere less 

 brilliant and the wings and scapulars are less perfect. 



Both old and young males then molt into an eclipse plumage. 

 Beginning in June the head and neck become mottled with new buffy 

 feathers, centrally dusky, which gradually replace the red; the red 

 of the chest and flanks is gradually replaced by handsome feathers, 

 centrally dusky but broadly edged and barred with rich shades of 

 buff and brown in a variety of patterns; the faded brown plumage 

 of the breast and belly are then invaded and gradually replaced by 

 a new growth of buff, whitish-tipped feathers, each with two large 

 spots or central areas of dusky; when absolutely fresh the long white 

 tips of these new feathers give the under parts a silvery white 

 appearance, but the tips soon wear off, leaving these parts as in the 

 female. While this eclipse plumage is at its height, in August, the 

 wings are molted, the secondaries first, with the greater and lesser 

 coverts, and then the primaries; there is much individual variation 

 in the time at which the showy tertials and scapulars are molted; 

 the large, blue-tipped tertials are sometimes renewed before the 

 eclipse plumage is complete and sometimes not until after it is shed; 

 the long, pointed, white-striped scapulars are usually the last to be 

 acquired. The tail is molted in August with the wings and the back 

 plumage is renewed by a double molt simultaneously with that of 

 the under parts; the eclipse feathers of the back are dusky, narrowly 

 edged with buff. In September a new growth of " mahogany red" 

 or "burnt sienna" feathers begins to replace the eclipse plumage on 

 the breast and the renewal of the fully adult plumage spreads over 

 the rest of the body, neck, and head, until, sometime in October or 

 November, the full plumage is complete. 



Food. — Mr. Tyler writes me that: 



This duck seems to prefer, at all times, the shallow ponds and overflowed areas 

 rather than deep canals and sloughs. The feeding operations are carried on entirely 

 above the water and for the most part along the margin of the ponds or even out on 

 the banks. I have never known them to dive in search of food and in fact believe 



