Vol. XIX 



iqo2 



1 B-RM.\vs.T)E.K, An Utidescribed Form of Black Duck. 1 87 



of October, are, as far as I have observed, invariably obscura. 

 Most of the representatives of this race evidently pass further 

 southward to spend the winter, but I have three typical specimens 

 which were shot on our seacoast (at Ipswich and Chathamj during 

 the latter half of February, 1901. 



Until very recently I had supposed that the Black Ducks which 

 breed about the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to the northward along 

 the eastern coast of Labrador would prove to belong to the red- 

 legged form, but Mr. C. F. Batchelder has shown me seven speci- 

 mens (all but one adult) which were collected for him in New- 

 foundland in June and July and which, although slightly larger than 

 our New-England-breeding birds, are precisely similar to the latter 

 in color and markings. A female in Mr. O. Bang's collection 

 taken in the Straits of Belle Isle on April 25, 1900, must also be 

 referred to obscura. Another, belonging to Mr. J. D. Sornborger, 

 which, with her brood of ducklings, was captured on July 8, 1896, 

 at Okak, on the northeastern coast of Labrador, is intermediate in 

 certain respects between ^/w/<;rrt; and rnbripes, but on the whole 

 perhaps nearer the former. 



To the red-legged race I can unhesitatingly refer only four of 

 the breeding Black Ducks which I have examined. One of these 

 (a female) was taken by Mr. L. M. Turner on July i, 1884, at 

 Ungava, Northern Labrador ; another (unsexed and without date) 

 by Mr. John McKensie at Moose Factory on James Bay ; a third 

 (represented by only the head and wing and bearing no sex mark 

 but evidently a female, for it was "with young") by Mr. C. 

 Drexler, on June 19, i860, at Cape Hope, Severn River; the 

 fourth (a maie) by Mr. E. A. Preble, on July 28, 1900, at Fort 

 Churchill;— the two localities last named being on the western 

 shores of Hudson Bay. Mr. Preble's specimen is in the collection 

 of the Biological Survey while the others belong to the National 

 Museum. All four of these birds are in poor condition for 

 comparison. Two of them were moulting, and the plumage of 

 the other two is worn and faded, while that of the Moose Factory 

 skin is also strongly tinged with rusty chestnut — a mere super- 

 ficial stain, apparently. Nevertheless they show satisfactorily 

 most of the essential characters of rnbripes. In respect to size 

 and the character and distribution of the black markings on the 



