102 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 6?. 



the conditions that governed the first arrivals. These were 

 mostly on rainy or cloudy days, for the earlier birds, while 

 the warblers waited carefully for the warmer waves. 



ABNORMAL COLORATION OF THE SCAUP DUCK. 



BY W. F. HENNINGER. 



Among a series of 10 (8 males and 2 females) of the Scaup 

 Duck (Marila mania } shot this spring on the Loramie Reser- 

 voir and the Miami Canal, there are three males (all shot 

 March 27, 1909), that show a decidedly abnormal coloration. 

 While the normal plumage of the belly and sides is pure white, 

 one male (No. 736 coll. W. F. H.) has the biggest part of the 

 belly grayish, with darker shaft streaks to each feather and a 

 few brown feathers in the black breast. One male, No. 734 

 (coll. W. F. H.) has more brown feathers on the breast than 

 black ones, these brownish feathers extending well up among 

 the neck feathers. No. 738 (coll. W. F. H.) male has not only 

 more brownish breast feathers than No. 734, but the whole 

 lower breast, belly and abdomen beyond the anus are overlaid 

 with a rusty-brownish wash extending upward on the side, 

 and has one bright brown tail feather. This certainly was not 

 caused by grease as the specimens were freshly killed, nor by 

 any compound of iron in the water as suggested by Mr. L F. 

 Arrow in the Auk, April, 1909, p. 189. The color would not 

 yield to chemical treatment and must be due to other causes. 

 Mr. Leon J. Cole in the Osprey, 1897, p. 69, records a similar 

 specimen of the Lesser Scaup Duck as No. 738 of my collec- 

 tion, only mine is the Big Scaup. No doubt there may be 

 other speciments of Marila marila showing similar abnormal 

 coloration in the large museums, but if so, they certainly have 

 not been brought to light and it seems worth while to direct 

 the attention of the workinsr ornitholoe"ists to such occur- 



