3G. UUEEQUEDULA. 301 



Adult male. Head and upper part of the neck dull plumbeous, 

 slightly glossed with grecu on the occiput and nape, and marked in 

 front of the eyes by a large crescentic band of white, extending 

 from the sides of the forehead to the sides of the throat ; pileum and 

 chin blackish ; back and anterior scapulars dusky, marked with 

 U-shaped bars of pale reddish buff; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 blackisli, with lighter edges; lower parts pale reddish, thickly spotted 

 with black ; under tail-covcrts black ; a white jjatch at the base of 

 the tail on each side ; longer scapulars black, with a central stripe 

 of buff : lesser wing-coverts and outer webs of some of the outer 

 scapulars pale blue ; greater coverts white, forming a bar anteriorly 

 to the wing-speculum on the secondaries, which is glossy green ; the 

 tips of the secondaries bluish black ; primaries and tail-feathers 

 blackish brown ; under wing-coverts dusky bluish, the central onea 

 and axillaries w^hite : bill uniform black ; iris brown ; feet yellowish. 

 Total length about 16 inches, wing 7'5, tail 3"25, culmen 1-75, 

 tarsus 1*2. 



Female. Upper parts dusky, the feathers bordered with whitish 

 buff ; pileum blackish ; sides of the head and upper neck dull 

 whitish, minutely streaked with blackish, the streaks more dense 

 before and behind the eye, forming an indistinct dusky stripe ; the 

 throat almost immaculate ; feathers of the underparts dusk}', with 

 broad whitish edges and irregular bars, the bars more of a V-shape 

 on the flanks : no light stripes along the centre of the longer 

 scapulars ; wings as in the male, but the green sjjeculum much 

 duller, and the white band formed by the tip of the last row of 

 upper wing-coverts narrower. 



Males moulting, similar to the females, but the wings of a brighter 

 colour, and the markings of the feathers better defined. 



Young. Similar to the adult female, but whole belly immaculate, 

 and speculum dull greyish brown, without metallic gloss. 



Hah. North America, but chiefly east of Rocky Mountains ; in 

 winter AVest Indies and ^Middle America, south to Columbia, Ecuador, 

 and Peru. 



a. (S ad. sk. No locality. Purchased. 



b. (S ad. sk. N. America. Capt. Kellett and 



Lieut. Wood [P.]. 



c. (S ad. St. Repulse Bav. Dr. J. Rae [P.]. 



d. S ad. sk. \V. side of Rocky Mts. J. K. Lord, Esq. [P.]. 



e. $ ad. sk. Hudson's River. Tweeddale Coll. 



Sarcelle du Mexique, Buff. Hist. Kat. Ois. ix. p. 285 (1783). 



Mexican Duck, Lafk. Si/n. iii. 2, p. 539, n. 78 (1785). 



Anas no\se bispaiiise, Gm. S. A', i. p. 525, n. 94 (1788) ; Lath. Ind. Oni. ii. 



p. 868, n. 89 (1790); Bo7m. Em: Meth. i. p. 160 (1791); Vieitl. N. D. 



V. p. 173 (1816); Bum. Bid. Sc. Nat. vi. p. 400 (1817); Wagl. Isis, 



1831, p. 532( = discoi-s). 

 Qucrquedula \\o\x liispanire, Steph. Gen. Zoo/, xii. 2, p. 153 (1824). 

 Pterocyanea nova; hispani.T, G. B. Gr. Gen. i?. iii. p. 617, n. 5(1845) ; Bp. 



Compt. Ecnd. xliii. p. 650, u. 88 (1856). 



