114 The Heater-fowl Family 



crest ; another white line beginning below and behind the eye 

 extends along the lower end of crest ; cheeks and sides of neck, 

 violet-black ; crest, silky in texture of metallic greens and 

 purples ; throat and front of neck, pure white ; back, dark brown 

 glossed with green ; lower back and rump darker, grading into 

 black on upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts, steel-blue with black 

 tips ; scapulars, black with metallic reflections ; the longer 

 tertials tipped with a white bar; lower portion of throat and 

 breast extending well on to the sides, chestnut, mottled in front 

 with white ; on the sides of the breast, above shoulder, is a 

 broad black bar over which is another of white ; sides and 

 flanks, buff crossed by fine wavy black lines ; feathers of the 

 upper borders having at their ends two bars of black enclosing 

 a white one ; lower breast, pure white ; on each side of rump is 

 a patch of dark purple ; under tail-coverts, dark greenish brown ; 

 tail, black, with metallic reflections ; bill, purple, red behind the 

 nostrils with a black spot on the culmen ; nail, black ; an oblong 

 spot of white from nostril to nail ; basal outline, yellow ; legs 

 and feet, brownish yellow with dark webs ; eyelids, vermilion ; 

 iris, red, sometimes reddish brown. 



Measuretneiits — Length, 19 inches; wing, 9.30 inches; tail, 4.70 

 inches; tarsus, 1.50 inches; culmen, 1.40 inches. 



Adult female — Head, gray ; crest shorter and smaller than drake's ; 

 back and rump and upper tail-coverts, brown, glossed with 

 bronze ; wings similar to male's but with wider band of white ; 

 breast, reddish brown ; under parts, white ; flanks, brown spotted 

 with white ; bill, dark lead color with a black nail ; legs and 

 feet, yellowish brown ; eyelids, yellow ; iris, brown. 



Measurements — Length, 17 inches ; wing, 8.30 inches ; tarsus, 1.30 

 inches; culmen, 1.30 inches. 



Downy young — Head and upper parts, dark brown; sides of the 

 head, Avith a stripe over the eye, buff; dull white spots on the 

 shoulder and on each side of the rump. 



Eggs — Eight to fourteen in number, ivory-white when unsoiled, and 

 measure 2.10 inches in length by 1.50 in breadth. 



Habitat — Breeds from Florida and the Gulf states, Colorado, 

 Nevada, and California, north to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 

 possibly Labrador, Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and 

 British Columbia. Winters chiefly in the United States, from 



