THE TRUE DUCKS. 



The True Ducks, as restricted by me, 

 consist of migratory species in which the 

 sexes are, for a great part of the year, 

 differently coloured, but in which the 

 drake assumes a summer, or post-nuptial, 

 plumage greatly resembling that of the 

 duck. 



The pattern presented by the primaries, 

 and the colour of the axillaries and under 

 tail-coverts, will suffice to separate the 

 True Ducks from all other Indian Ducks, 

 except the Grey Ducks, and they may be 

 separated from these by the length of the 

 secondary quills of the wing, or in other 

 words by the bluntness of the wing. 



Of the nine True Ducks found in India, 

 no less than seven are well-known English 

 species, and two are Asiatic, occasionally 

 straggling into Europe. There are no 

 other Ducks of this group at all likely 

 to occur in India. 



The True Ducks have been divided 

 into several minor groups by characters 

 i68 



