30 LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — AXSERES. 



.ffithyia vallisneria. 



THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 



Anas vallisneria, Wils. Am. Orn. VIII. 1814, 103, pi. 7, fig. 3. 



Fuligula vallisneria, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. XII. ii. 1824, 196. — Sw. & Rich. F. B. A. II. 



1831, 451. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 430. — Aim. Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 1, pi. 301 ; Synop. 1839, 



285 ; B. Am. VI. 1843, 299, pi. 395. — Coues, Key, 1872, 290 ; Cheek List, 1873, no. 504 ; e.d. 2, 



1S82, no. 724 ; B. N. AY. 1874, 575. 

 J nihil,, vallisneria, Boie, Isis, 1826, 9S0. — Baiud, B. N. Am. 1858, 794; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 



no. 592. 

 AVthyia vallisneria, Scl. & Salv. Xom. Neotr. 1S73. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 617. 

 Arislonetta vallisneria, Baiud, B. N. Am. 1858, 793 (in text). 



Hab. Nearly the whole of North America, breeding from the Northwestern States northward 

 to Alaska ; south in winter to Guatemala. 



Sp. Char. Dill long and narrow, the end much depressed, with the nail scarcely decurved, 

 the base high, with the culmen gradually sloping and scarcely concave ; culinen nearly as long as 



AZ. vallisneria. 



the middle toe (without claw), arid about three times the greatest width of the maxilla. Adult 

 male : Head and neck chestnut-rufous, the former brownish dusky (sometimes quite blackish) 

 anteriorly and on tup ; jugulum and anterior part of back, lower part of rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and posterior part id' crissum black ; back, scapulars, flanks, sides, and anal region white, finely 

 and delicately vermiculated with dusky ; breast and abdomen immaculate white. Wing-coverts 

 deep ash-gray, finely sprinkled with white ; secondaries ("speculum") lighter, more bluish gray, 

 the upper leathers edged with black ; tertials like the longer scapulars ; primaries slate-color, 

 the inner quills more cinereous, except at ends, where dusky ; tail dusky. Bill entirely green- 

 ish black; iris carmine-red; feet bluish gray. Adult femah : Head, neck, jugulum, and anterior 

 part of back raw-umber brown, a post-ocular space and the foreneck whitish, the chin, throat, and 

 cheeks tinged with fulvous ; wings as in the male, hut coverts almost or quite uniform gray ; back, 

 scapulars, sides, and flanks with only the exposed ends of the feathers vermiculated with white 

 ami dusky, the remainder being grayish brown. Bill greenish black ; iris brownish red ; feet 

 plumbeous. 



Total length, about 20.00 to 22.00 inches ; extent. 30.00 to 33.00 ; wing, 8.75-9.25 ; culmen, 

 2.10-2.50 ; greatest width of bill, .75-.80 ; tarsus, 1.70 ; middle toe, 2.60-2.65. 



