AVES ANATID^. 467 



Back : Upper back reddish, of a decided cinnamon shade, each feather 

 with a large blackish brown center spot ; lower back and rump dull 

 blackish brown, the feathers faintly bordered with narrow edges of cinna- 

 mon ; upper tail-coverts cinnamon, shading into dove-color or fawn ; 

 some of the upper coverts with dusky centers. 



Tail : With central feathers elongated and acuminate and of a pale cin- 

 namon shade, becoming dove-color at the tips of the longer rectrices. 



Wings : Dark indefinite slate, with a greenish tinge ; scapulars black, 

 with strong metallic green reflections, each feather bordered conspicuously 

 on both webs with cinnamon-brown ; primaries dull slaty black, with 

 greenish tinges pervading most strongly at the tips on both the inner and 

 outer webs ; greater wing-coverts slaty, with a margin of cinnamon a third 

 of an inch wide at the tips of the feathers, forming a cinnamon band on 

 the anterior boundary of the speculum ; the secondaries slaty, with an area 

 of metallic green on each, then a narrow band of velvety black and finally 

 a broad tip of cinnamon (three quarters of an inch), the whole forming the 

 speculum and its posterior boundary ; the under wing-coverts are slaty, 

 the series gray and the inner ones and axillaries whitish. 



Lower parts : Entire lower parts, including sides and flanks, cinnamon 

 of a pale but decided tone, each feather with a central dusky or black spot, 

 which on the flanks becomes arrow shaped ; the under tail-coverts dull 

 cinnamon, with some obsolete central streaks of dusky. 



Bill : Bluish lead-color ; there are two well defined areas of bright 

 orange yellow at the base of the upper mandible, one on either side. 

 " Basal half of bill, on sides, pale-colored (rose-red in life) " (Ridgway). 



Feet : Umber-brown, shaded and tinged with yellow. 



Iris : Hazel-brown. 



The females, while averaging somewhat smaller than the males, are 

 scarcely to be distinguished from them by color. 



Young in the down are said to be like those of Dafila acuta. Young 

 birds of the year can hardly be distinguished from the adults. 



Geographical Range. — The Bahama Islands ; the Greater Antilles ; all 

 South America, except Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador ; Patagonia, the 

 Magellan Straits and Falkland Islands. 



Though of regular occurrence in the Patagonian region, this can hardly 

 be regarded as a common bird ; Hudson speaks of it as rare in the 



