RIVER DUCKS 81 



b'. Wing over 8.50. 

 c'. Colored band on wing (speculum; not with a white or gray- 

 ish bar. 

 b'. Legs brownish ; bill dusky. Black Duck, 

 b''. Legs bright red; bill clear yellow. Red-legged Black 

 Duck, 

 c''. Colored band on wing (speculum) edged or barred with 

 white or grayish brown, 

 d'. Speculum metallic green, grayish brown in female, nar- 

 rowly edged with white ; tail of sixteen much graduated 

 feathers ; its shortest feather less than two-thirds 

 length of longest. Pintail, 

 d''. Speculum rich metallic violet, bordered by narrow bands 

 of black and white at base and tip. Mallard, 

 bl Wing under 8.50. 

 c'. Lesser wing coverts blue or grayish blue, speculum green. 



Blue-winged Teal, 

 c'. Lesser wing coverts gray, speculum green, 

 d'. White bar in front of bend of wing. Green-winged Teal, 

 d". No white bar in front of bend of wing. European Teal. 



Genus ANAS Linnaeus. 



X> 



182. Anas boschas Linn. Mallard. 



Plumage of adult male : head and throat glossy irridescent bluish black ; 

 breast chestnut ; back grayish brown ; rump, upper and under tail coverts 

 black ; neck white-ringed ; belly whitish marked with wavy dark lines; spec, 

 ulum metallic violet, bordered at base and tip by narrow black and white 

 bands. Plumage of adult female : speculum as in male ; breast and belly 

 ochraceous buffy, mixed with grayish brown ; central portions of the feathers 

 of the upper parts dusky marked ; top and sides of head dusky and buffy 

 streaked; otherwise much as in male. Immature plumage similar to that 

 of female. Wing 10.00 to 12.00; culmen 2.20 ; tarsus 1.65. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern parts of northern hemisphere ; in America south to 

 Panama and Cuba ; breeding on the Atlantic coast from Labrador northward, 

 and in the interior states from Indiana and Iowa northward ; in California 

 locally from Los Angeles northward. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; rare migrant, (Johnson). Cumberland; 

 rare in northern part of county, (Mead) ; uncommon, chiefly transient, 

 occasionally occurring in winter, (Brown, C. P. B. p. 30). Hancock; rare, 

 (Dorr). Kennebec; very scarce, (Dill). Knox; rare, in winter, (Rackliff). 

 Oxford ; very rare, (Nash). Penobscot ; I shot one last year (1896), (Hardy). 

 Sagadahoc; very few fall to spring, (Spinney); from October to November 



