THE TRUE DUCKS/ 



The ducks may always be distinguished from their 

 relatives, the geese, by characters already indicated. 

 The tarsus, that is to say, the naked portion of the leg, 

 between the joint where the feathers end and that 

 where the toes begin, is covered in front by broad, 

 overlapping scales, instead of by a naked skin, orna- 

 mented with small hexagonal scales. The ducks are 

 usually smaller than the geese. They are also, as a 

 rule, more highly colored, though this brilliancy pre- 

 vails more in the males of the fresh-water ducks than 

 in the sea ducks. Nevertheless, this is not the invari- 

 able rule, for the males of all the mergansers, and such 

 species of sea ducks as the eiders, the harlequin, the 

 butter-ball and long-tailed duck are extremely showy 

 and beautiful birds. As a rule the ducks have shorter 

 necks and legs than the geese. 



It has long been known to naturalists and to a few 

 gunners that in the mallard and some other ducks the 

 males assume during the summer a plumage very dif- 

 ferent from that which they commonly wear during the 

 autumn, winter and spring, and not unlike that of the 

 female. This is not generally known, and even by 

 ornithologists has not always been understood. Re- 

 cently, however, in the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for the last quarter of 



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