THE TRUE DUCKS. S3 



neck, and all the white beneath, as well as the elegant 

 scapulars, had entirely vanished, and to all appearance 

 a sexual metamorphosis had taken place. But this 

 change was of short duration, for about the latter end 

 of September one of the males began to assume the 

 masculine attire * * * 2ind by the middle of Oc- 

 tober this bird was again in full plumage." 



Twenty-five years later the naturalist Waterton de- 

 scribed a similar molt in the male mallard, and as time 

 went on, other species were found to undergo like 

 changes. In Mr. Ridgway's "Manual of North Ameri- 

 can Birds," a number of species are given as having a 

 peculiar summer plumage resembling the female. Such 

 are the mallard, blue-wing and cinnamon teal, the gad- 

 wall, widgeon, pintail and scaup. On the whole, how- 

 ever, very little is said in the books about this change. 



Mr. Stone's examination of four species of eider 

 ducks brought back from the Arctic by Mr. E. A. Mc- 

 Ilhenny, and taken near Point Barrow, in the late sum- 

 mer or early autumn, leads Mr. Stone to believe that in 

 all ducks where the plumages of the male and female 

 are markedly different we may expect to find this double 

 molt and a dull summer plumage in the male. He 

 points out that this summer plumage is in no sense a 

 nuptial dress, and that while it may begin to appear 

 before the young birds are hatched, it is not seen until 

 after the mating season is over, and is distinctly a post- 

 nuptial dress. The change is chiefly restricted to the 

 head, neck, breast and scapulars; in other words, to 

 those parts which are most conspicuously colored. 



