130 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Anas obscura CJniel. 



DUSKY DTICK. 



Popular synonyms. Black Mallavd; Black Duck; Black English Duck (Florida). 



Anas ohscvra Gmel. S. N. i. pt. ii.l788,54i.— WiLS. Am.Orn. viii.l811,in.pl.72,flc.5.— NuTT 



Man.ii,lS.34.ai2.— AUD. Orn.Biog.iv,lS38,15, pi. .302; Synop.1839,276; B. Am. vi, 1843. 



244.pl. 38(i.— Baikd, B. N. Am. 1858. 775; Cat. N. Am. B. m59. No. 577.— GouES, Key. 1S72. 



285; Check List, 1873, No. 489; 2d ed. 1882. No. 708; B. N. W. 1874, 5150.— Emow. Nom. N. 



Am. B. 1881. No. 602; Man. N. Am. B. 1887. 91.-B. B. &R. Water B. N. Am. i. 1884. 499. 



—A. O. U. Check List, 1880. No. 133. 



Hab. Eastern North America, west to the Mississippi Valley, north to Labrador and 



Fort Anderson and York Factory: breeding from Long Island, northern Illinois, and Iowa. 



northward . 



Sp. Chab. Adult. Prevailing color brownish black or dusky, the feathers edged, more 

 or less distinctly, with pale grayish fulvous. Head and neck about equally streaked with 

 grayish white (more ochraceous near the bill) and dusky; pileum nearly uniform dusky, and 

 a dusky stripe back from the eye. Speculum violet, changing to green in some ligWs. 

 narrowly tipped with white, and with a broad subterminal bar of velvety black ; last row of 

 coverts dusky brownish, broadly tipped with black. Sexes alike. "Bill yellowish green. 

 the unguis dusky; iris dark brown; feet orange-red, the webs dusky" (Audubon). 

 Wing, 10.50-11.50 inches; oulmen, 2.00-2,35; tarsus, 1.70-1.80; middle toe. 1.90-2.10. 

 Downy yonno. Above olivaeeous-brown, faintly relieved by six inconspicuous mark- 

 ings of light brownish buff, situated as follows: one on the posterior border of each arm- 

 wing; one (small and sometimes nearly obsolete) on each side of the back, behind the 

 wings, and one. more distinct, on each side the rump, near the base of the tail. Pileum and 

 hiudneck (longitudinally) brown, like (ho back; rest of the head and neck, with lower parts, 

 light dingy brownish bulT, paler on the abdomen ; side of head marked witha narrow dusky 

 stripe running from the upper basal angle of the maxilla to the eye. thence back toward the 

 occiput. )jut scarcely confluent with the brown on the latter; an indistinct spot on the 

 auricular region, with a still less distinct dusky mark extending back from this to the nape. 

 A summer specimen from Moose Factory. Hudson's Bay Territory (No. 17.971, John Mc- 

 Kenzie), differs from fall, winter, and spring examples from the United States in having 

 the pale edges of the feathers nearly all worn off. so that the plumage appears to be almost 

 uniform black, while the lower parts are strongly tinged with rusty, this approaching a 

 briglit ferruginous tint on the breast. Some examples have a slight ting.: of metalUo green 

 on the sides of the head, behind the eye. 



The Dusky Duck is chiefly an eastern species, and reaches 

 nearly the western limit of its range in Illinois. Just how far 

 to the west and southwest it extends is unknown, but Col. N. 

 S. Goss is convinced that it does not occur in Kansas, where a 

 quite distinct though a .somewhat similar species, Ami'^fulrigiila 

 ■niaculom (Senn.), replaces it. It has been recorded from Utah 

 Lake, Utah, but in view of what we now know the i-ecord in 

 (question doubtless refers to the species just mentioned. 



ri-of(>ssor Cooke says that "though principally a bird of the 

 IOast(M-n States, the Black Duck is not rare in the northern part 

 of tiie Mississippi A'alley," and that it breeds in Iowa and Illi- 

 nois, but he does not give particulars as to its breeding in the 

 latter State. 



