FAMILY ANATIDAE 1 39 



particularly in dry seasons when scarcity of water may make it 

 necessary for them to wander from their usual haunts. 



Schonwetter (Handb. Ool., pt. 2, 1960, pp. 113, 114) remarks that 

 eggs of the genus are cream-colored and smooth. He gives the 

 dimensions of 2 eggs of 6'. sylvicola (p. 125) as 58.4-60.6x43.2-43.6 

 mm. 



ANAS PLATYRHYNCHOS PLATYRHYNCHOS Linnaeus: Mallard; 



Anade Real 



Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 125. (Sweden.) 



A large duck ; male head green, and a white collar around neck ; 

 female mottled brown, with blue wing speculum, bordered on both 

 sides by a line of white. 



Description. — Length 560 to 660 mm. Male, head and neck bright 

 green, with a narrow collar of white ; back brownish ; rump, and 

 upper and lower tail coverts, black, the middle upper coverts curled 

 upward at the end ; wing speculum bright blue, bordered with white 

 on either side; breast chestnut brown; rest of under surface gray. 



Female, mottled dusky and brown, with the wing speculum like 

 that of the male. 



Measurements (from Delacour, Waterfowl World, vol. 2, 1956, p. 

 42).— Males, wing 260-270, tail 82-95, culmen 50-56, tarsus 40-44 mm. 



Females, wing 240-270, tail 80-90, culmen 43-52, tarsus 38-42 mm. 



An accidental visitor. Migrant from the north. 



The only report of this species that is at all definite is of "one 

 seen" by Jewel (Auk, 1913, p. 424) on one of the lakes near 

 Miraflores, Canal Zone, on Nov. 26, 1911. Other notices in literature 

 refer to Lawrence (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, 1863, p. 13) 

 in an account of birds collected by McLeannan, where the mallard is 

 included with the statement that this species was one of "a few 

 satisfactorily determined from a list furnished by him, without 

 specimens — such for instance as the King Vulture, Musk Duck, 

 Mallard, Brown Pelican, etc. I omit many others named in the list, 

 as they require to be more positively identified." 



Karl Curtis informs me that in over 40 years of hunting he has 

 never seen a mallard, though from time to time female pintails have 

 been brought to him on the supposition that they were the species 

 under discussion. North of Panama, the mallard comes regularly to 

 southern Mexico and is reported casually to Nicaragua and Costa 

 Rica. 



