160 ANATID.E, 



streaks, paler on the forehead ; sides of the liead and throat 

 brown, with minute dusky specks tinged with ferruginous ; 

 the front and sides of the neck brown, with dusky black 

 spots, which are minute on the upper part, becoming larger 

 by degrees downwards, where they are also more distinct ; 

 the breast and belly very pale brown, with more distant 

 dusky spots ; the back and scapulars dusky black, with pale 

 margins, each feather having a transverse bar of white near 

 the tip ; the longer scapulars are only margined with rufous 

 white, and some are powdered with white ; the rump, like 

 the back, but these feathers gradually lose the white bar as 

 they approach the tail, so that the tail-coverts are only 

 margined with white ; the feathers on the sides of the body 

 being large, have broad margins, with the middle dusky 

 black, in which is cither a ferruginous white bar, or two 

 spots, one on each side of the shaft ; the prime quills dusky 

 grey as usual ; the speculum changeable green, or copper, 

 tipped with white, a violet bar dividing the green from the 

 white ; the first tertial is brown on the inner web, grey on 

 the outer near the shaft, and a broad margin of violet ; the 

 rest of the tertials are brown, dashed with cinereous black 

 near the shafts ; the coverts of the wings plain dark cinereous, 

 the largest series tipped with bay ; the tail consists of sixteen 

 dusky feathers, dashed with cinereous, gradually becoming 

 darker towards the middle feathers, which rather exceed the 

 next in length, making the tail regularly cuneiform ; vent, 

 and under tail-coverts rufous white, with distant black spots." 

 At the annual autumn moult the males again assume with 

 their new feathers the colours peculiar to their sex, but the 

 assumption is gradual. White spots first appear among the 

 brown feathers on the front of the neck ; by the end of the 

 second week in October the front of the neck and breast is 

 mottled with brown and white ; at the end of the third week 

 in October a few brown spots only remain on the white. 



