2G0 



ANATID.E. 



upper tail-coverts are blackish, the tail bluisli-grey, lighter 

 at the end. The bill is dusky; the feet of a leaden tint. 

 The male in the third year, and after his second moult, has 

 greatly improved in colouring, although the tints arc not 

 nearly so pure as in the old bird. The hind part of the 

 neck is still brown, as are the wing-coverts ; the sides are 

 dark brownish-grey, with undulated yclIowish-red bars. The 

 white collar is not yet complete, but all the white markings 

 on the neck are edged with black ; the fore part of the breast 

 is dull grey, the middle yellowish-grey, spotted with bluish- 

 grey. The white bar on the wing is still wanting ; the rump 

 is glossy bluish-black, the tail nearly of the same tint." 



I have never been able to obtain a specimen of the wind- 

 pipe of the male of this species ; it is thus described by Mr. 

 Audubon : " is six inches and a half in length, has at first a 

 breadth of only three lines, but at the distance of three- 

 quarters of an inch enlarges to four and a half lines, and so 

 continues for two inches ; it then contracts to two and a half 

 lines, and again at the lower part enlarges to five and a 

 quarter lines, and terminates in a large transverse bony dila- 

 tation or tympanum, of which the length is seven and a half 

 lines, the breadth one inch two lines ; it projects as usual to 

 the left side, where it is of a rounded form." 



