DUSKY OR BLACK DUCK, 19% 
CHAPTER XIX. 
DUSKY OR BLACK DUCK, 
(Anas Obscura.) 
Black Mallard in the West, 
Adult Male. Bill about the length of the head, high- 
er than broad at the base, depressed and widened to- 
wards the end, rounded at the tip. Head of moderate 
size, oblong, compressed ; neck, rather long and slender, 
body, full, depressed ; feet, short, stout, placed a little 
behind the ceutre of the body; legs, bare a little above 
the joint; tarsus, short, a little compressed ; hind toe, 
extremely small. Plumage dense, soft and elastic ; on 
the head and neck the feathers linear oblong; on the 
other parts in general broad and rounded. Wings of 
moderate breadth and length, acute. ‘Tail, short, much 
rounded, of eighteen acute feathers. 
Bill, yellowish green ; iris, dark brown ; feet, orange 
red; the webs, dusky. The upper part of the head is 
glossy brownish black ; the feathers margined with hgh’ 
brown ; the sides of the head and a band over the eye 
are light grayish brown, with longitudinal dusky 
streaks ; the middle of the neck is similar, but more 
dusky. The general color is blackish brown, a little 
paler beneath. All the feathers margined with reddish 
brown. The wing coverts are erayish-dusky, with a 
faint tinge of green; the ends of the secondary coverts 
velvet-black. Primaries and their coverts blackish 
