AVES ANATID^. 453 



Head : Forehead and region in front of and below the eye and the 

 lower eyelid, white, many of the feathers, particularly near where they 

 join the black region, narrowly tipped with dusky or black ; the rest of 

 the head black, which, back of and above the eye, is decorated with a band 

 of changeable iridescent green, having strong metallic reflections ; this 

 might be described as a hood, but that it is divided by a narrow area of 

 dusky feathers on the crown. 



Neck : Black, except on the chin, where the white is shaded by dusky 

 tips to each feather ; where it joins the body, the black is banded narrowly 

 with white. 



Back : Black or dusky, each feather broadly edged with white ; lower 

 back and rump black ; upper tail-coverts white, forming a conspicuous 

 patch, strongly contrasted against the lower back and tail. 



Tail : Dusky blackish brown ; beneath, the rectrices are silvered with a 

 strong grey color. 



Wings : Scapulars black, with sharply defined white borders or edges ; 

 tertials long and narrowly pointed and bordered with defined white 

 margins, the outer web velvety black, the inner smoky black or brown ; 

 primaries blackish brown ; wing-coverts pure white, except those just at 

 the bend of the wing, which are dull grey ; the tips of the greater wing- 

 coverts velvety black for their terminal half inch ; these, with the velvety 

 black secondaries, form a speculum of that color ; under wing-coverts 

 silver-grey, powdered with tiny fleckings of dusky brown. 



Lower parts : Upper breast and chest barred with white on a dusky 

 ground ; lower breast and abdomen white ; sides and flanks, as well as the 

 under tail-coverts and vent, strongly shaded with rusty red, immaculate on 

 the extreme flanks, but more or less broken with white shading on each 

 feather elsewhere. 



Bill : Bluish black (Colburn). 



Feet : Bluish black (Colburn). 



Iris : Hazel-brown (Colburn). 



The adult female is of about the same size as the male, but is not so highly 

 colored, the rusty of the sides and flanks varying much in intensity and 

 amount ; this also applies to breeding male birds, many of which have 

 the rusty color restricted, ill defined and dull. Fourteen birds taken on 

 the breeding grounds in January, when they were just bringing out broods, 

 form the basis for the above generalization. 



