Vol. XXXIV] Opernotser, Notes on North American Birds. 193 
published the notes made by him on some young captive ducks 
of this species reared from the down and kept under observation 
for two years. During this time the birds maintained the char- 
acters of the smaller form with brownish or slightly reddish legs; 
so that these observations, so far as they go, fully bear out Mr. 
Brewster’s contention of the validity of the two subspecies, Anas 
rubripes rubripes and Anas rubripes tristis. 
When the description of Anas obscura rubripes was first published 
and the distinction between the two supposed races first. pointed 
out, the present writer was inclined to believe that these differences 
were due either to age, season, or individual variation. During 
the years that have intervened, however, every opportunity to 
investigate the status of these two birds has been taken; and all 
the results of these investigations are now seen to strengthen Mr. 
Brewster’s view of the subspecific distinctness of the two forms. 
In fact, for a time it looked very much as though the two birds 
were specifically distinct; but there are, as Mr. Brewster says, 
numerous specimens variously intermediate between the two, so 
that subspecific titles more properly express their true relationships. 
The technical name for the Red-legged Black Duck becomes Anas 
rubripes rubripes Brewster, since this is the first tenable name 
applied to the species; and the ordinary Black Duck, formerly 
known as Anas obscura, becomes, as above indicated, Anas rubripes 
tristis. 
The principal characters and the geographic distribution of the 
two, so far as now determinable, are as follows: 
Anas rubripes rubripes Brewster. 
SUBSPECIFIC CHARACTERS. — Size somewhat larger; feathers of the pileum 
usually much edged with grayish, ochraceous or tawny; entire throat 
normally spotted or streaked with very dark brown or blackish; the dark 
markings on the anterior lower parts and on the sides of the head larger and 
more blackish as well as usually more sharply defined; bill yellow; tarsi 
and toes bright red. 
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.— Breeds from northern Ungava to the west- 
ern side of Hudson Bay in the neighborhood of Fort Churchill, south to 
southern James Bay and for an undetermined distance southeastward. 
In winter it ranges south to Arkansas, southern Texas, southern Louisiana, 
southern Georgia, and Florida. 
