18 WILD DUCK. 
with a slightly darker shade. Legs and toes, orange; webs, 
darker orange. 
In some instances the female has been known to assume the 
plumage of the male, even to the curled feathers of the tail. 
The young have a tinge of yellow on the whole of the 
breast. The male resembles the female till after the first 
moult. 
Sir William Jardine observes, ‘The Wild Duck is sometimes 
subject to variety; we have seen the drakes having the upper 
parts of a bluish grey, the dark breast paler; and we possess 
a Duck shot from a flock, which has the wings and part of 
the head and neck white.’ ' 
A hybrid between the male Wigeon and the female Wild 
Duck, has been described as a separate species, under the name 
of the Bimaculated Duck, so called, apparently, from two 
patches of chesnut brown, margined and varied with white, on 
the side of the head and neck. It was supposed, subsequently 
for some time, to be a hybrid between the Mallard and the 
Teal, but Frederick Bond, Esq., in a letter to me on the 
subject, says, ‘I have a fine specimen, of a hybrid between 
the Wigeon and the Wild Duck, which closely approaches the 
original specimen of the Bimaculated Duck, but being only 
a bird of the year, the markings on the head are not very 
well defined; but another specimen of the same brood, now 
alive, had the markings muck better defined, and if it lives 
to moult again, I hope, and fully believe, that it will prove a 
complete Bimaculated Duck. 'The femaie of the brood is exactly 
like the specimen which formerly belonged to Mr. Vigors, and 
is now with the male in the British Museum.’ 
Mr. Vigors’ specimen, just mentioned, was taken in a decoy 
at Boarstall, near Otmoor, Buckinghamshire, in the year 1771. 
The following is the description of it, compiled from Mr. Selby’s 
account:—Male; bill, blaclish grey, passing towards the base 
and edges into orange .yellow; between the bill and the eye, 
and behind’ the ear coverts are two irregular patches of chesnut 
brown, margined and varied with white. Head on the sides, 
dark glossy green, on the front, crown, and back, very deep 
reddish brown, glossed with purple black, and passing on the 
back of the neck into deep violet purple; on the sides, the 
neck is dark glossy green, and on the rest of the upper part 
reddish brown, with oval black spots; breast, on the middle 
part, pale reddish brown, spotted with black; below, yellowish 
white, with waved black lines, most distinct on the sides. 
