194 BUIXETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ovate to elliptical ovate and have much less luster than the eggs of 

 the redhead. 



The measurements of 88 eggs in various collections average 62.2 

 by 43.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 66.8 by 43.2, 63 by 45.8, 56.5 by 40.7, and 57 by 38.8 millimeters. 



Incubation lasts for 28 days and is performed entirely by the 

 female. The males desert the females as soon as the eggs are laid and 

 gather into large flocks in the lakes and large open spaces in the 

 sloughs. 



Plumages. — The downy young show their aristocratic parentage 

 as soon as they are hatched in the peculiar wedged-shaped bill and 

 head. The color of the upper parts — crown, hind neck, and back — 

 varies from "sepia" to " buffy olive." The under parts are yellow- 

 ish, deepening to " amber yellow " on the cheeks and lores, brighten- 

 ing to ''citron yellow" on the breast, fading out to "naphthalene 

 yellow " on the belly and to almost white on the throat. The mark- 

 ings on the side of the head are but faintly indicated; below the 

 broad yellow superciliary stripe is a narrow brown postocular stripe 

 and below that an indistinct auricular stripe of light brown. The 

 yellow scapular patches are quite conspicuous, but the rump spots 

 are hardty noticeable. The colors become duller and browner as the 

 young bird increases in size. 



Before the young bird is half grown, or when about 5 weeks old, 

 the first feathers begin to appear on the flanks and scapulars; at 

 about the same time small " russet " feathers appear on the face, and 

 the head soon becomes fully feathered ; the breast plumage comes 

 next, then the tail; and the last of the down is replaced by feathers 

 on the neck and rump before the wings are even started. The young 

 bird is fully grown before the wings appear and is 10 or 12 weeks old 

 before it can fly. The sexes are nearly indistinguishable up to this 

 age, but the young male is more clearly " russet " brown on the head 

 than the female; both have light throats and brown backs. The 

 young male, however, makes rapid progress toward maturity and 

 soon begins to acquire the red head and the vermiculated black and 

 white feathers of the back; by November he has assumed a plumage 

 much like the adult, except that all the colors are duller or mixed 

 with Juvenal feathers and the back is darker, about the color of an 

 adult male redhead. By the following spring only a few vestiges o 

 the immature plumage are left, a few brown feathers in the back, 

 light edgings in the breast, and less perfection in the wings. 



The canvasback has a partial eclij^se plumage which it wears for a 

 short time only. The head and neck become mottled with dusky 

 and dull brown; the black chest is mixed with brown and gray 

 feathers; and the belly is more or less mottled. Dr. Arthur A. Allen 

 tells me that molting begins from the first to the middle of August, 



