WILD DUCK. 17 
tipped with white; tertiaries, pale chesnut brown, the outer 
webs darker than the inner. The tail, of twenty feathers, 
has the four middle ones deep velvet greenish black, and 
curled upwards and backwards, or to speak perhaps more 
correctly, forwards, the others greyish ash colour, the margins 
white, those of the outermost feathers the widest; upper tail 
coverts, bluish or greenish velvet black; under tail coverts, 
velvet black. Legs and toes, orange yellow; webs, orange 
yellow. 
In some other species of birds, we find the female, in 
occasional exceptional instances, the consequence either of age 
or of some peculiar constitutional idiosyncrasy, assuming the 
plumage of the male, but it is a curious fact in the natural 
history of the Mallard, as also indeed in that of other Ducks, 
that every year, in every instance, he assumes the dress of 
the female, perhaps a shade darker. This change commences 
about the beginning of the last week in May, and is com- 
pleted in a month, namely by the beginning of the last 
week in June. In the beginning of August he again begins 
to don his own attire, and by about the end of the first 
week in October is ‘himself again.’ 
The female is less than the male. Length, one foot ten 
inches; bill, greenish grey, black on the inner part, and lght 
yellowish brown towards the tip; the tooth black. Iris, 
brown; head on the sides and the crown, pale buff brown 
with streaks of blackish brown; neck, also pale buff brown 
and streaked with blackish brown, but the streaks smaller; 
the lower part of the neck of a richer tint; chin and throat, 
pale buff brown. Breast, pale dull yellowish brown, the 
centres of the feathers varied with a darker shade; on the 
sides pale yellowish brown with blackish brown spots; back, 
blackish brown, the feathers being deeply margined with reddish 
white and pale yellowish brown. 
The wings have the first and second quill feathers nearly 
equal in length; greater wing coverts towards the end, white, 
the tips velvet black; lesser wing coverts, greyish brown, 
with the lower tier deeply tinted with pale reddish brown; 
primaries, dark brown; secondaries, dark brown on the inner 
webs, on the outer the speculum has the upper haif green 
with purple reflections, the lower half velvet black with white 
tips to the feathers; tertiaries, also dark brown. ‘Tail, brown, 
the feathers margined with white and reddish white; under 
tail coverts, pale brown, the centres of the feathers varied 
VOL. VII. C 
