ANATIDR. 499 
speckled with minute spots of black; the back, seapu- 
lars and rump are finely pencilled with black and 
white, the pencilling much finer on the rump; the 
lesser wing-coverts are white, the greater tipped 
with black; the primary quills and the tail-feathers 
brownish grey; the speculum on the secondaries 
glossy green, the feathers tipped with black,—one 
feather nearest the body is white; the tertials are 
black on the outer web, edged with white, dark grey 
on the inner webs; the breast is pale pinkish red; 
belly and vent white, slightly pencilled with black ; 
the tail-coverts all round are black; the legs, toes 
and webs dark brown. The male Wigeon, like so 
many others of this family, changes its plumage very 
considerably in the summer, but does not approach 
so nearly to the plumage of the female as some of 
the others: the whole of the head, neck, breast and 
flanks become at this time a rich rusty red, which 
colour seems more or less to pervade the whole of 
the body, except the wing-coverts and the belly, 
which remain quite white. My tame one is now (the 
end of September) just beginning to reassume its 
ordinary plumage, the conspicuous white mark on 
the head making its appearance first. The female 
the bill bluish black; irides brown; the head and 
neck are much mottled with dark brown and reddish 
brown; the back and rump dull dark brown; the 
tail-coverts the same, margined with white; the 
scapulars the same as the back, but marked with 
