The True Ducks. 269 



margins of the scapulars are chocolate- 

 brown, the central portion grey, the whole 

 finely vermiculated with black and ashy. 

 The rump and the upper tail-coverts are 

 deep black. On either side of the upper 

 tail-coverts there is a bunch of truncated 

 feathers, broadly tipped with white, and 

 generally concealed by the long flank- 

 feathers. The four middle tail-feathers 

 are black and curled up, the others are 

 whitish, with the central portion more or 

 less brown. The upper wing-coverts are 

 greyish brown, the lower series tipped 

 black, with a preceding white band. The 

 inner web of the primaries and the shaft 

 are drab with a brown tip ; the outer web 

 entirely brown. The first, and sometimes 

 the second or third, secondary, are dark 

 brown on the outer, paler brown on the 

 inner, web, and tipped with white. The 

 following ones have the outer web metallic 

 purple with a double band of black and 

 white at the tip; the inner web brown 

 tipped with white. The first two or three 

 inner secondaries next the speculum are 

 rich brown on the outer web, grey on the 

 inner ; and the innermost secondaries are 

 all grey. 



Younger males have very broad margins 

 to the feathers of the breast ; and the 



