^°''lfiO^"] Brewster, The Red-legged Black Duck. 323 



RESURRECTION OF THE RED-LEGGED BLACK DUCK. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



As Dr. Dwight saw fit to remove the button from his foil before 

 attacking the Red-legged Black Duck and me, its devoted champion, 

 in 'The Auk' for October, 1909, I feel free to defend both the bird 

 and myself with a similarly naked weapon. If by so doing I am 

 fortunate enough to prick my formidable adversary here and there 

 between the joints of his coat of mail he will remember that "faithful 

 are the wounds of a friend" and perhaps will value them accord- 

 ingly. He has indulged in no little keen but perfectly good-natured 

 fun and satire at my expense, and at that of some of my ornithological 

 beliefs. I shall endeavor to repay him, as best I may, in his own 

 coin, with perhaps some accrued interest added. But first I would 

 have it distinctly understood, both by him and by every one else, 

 that nothing in what I am about to say is intended to express, or 

 even to imply, the least doubt of the sincerity of any of his state- 

 ments or the slightest disrespect for his scientific opinions. 



The article just referred to is entitled " The Singular Case of the 

 Black Duck of North America." This is dealt with by Dr. Dwight 

 in a style so terse and masteri'ul as to recall Julius Caesar's laconic 

 but all-embracing message, veni, vidi, vici. The matter is finally 

 disposed of in the following decisive and uncompromising terms : — 



"The evidence shows that all young birds, both in Canada and 

 along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, have brownish legs, 

 while breeding adults from the same localities have red ones. 

 Under these circumstances the 'Red-legged Black Duck' as a 

 subspecies does not appear to have a leg left to stand on — not even 

 a red one. . . . Now at last after much expenditure of energy the 

 Black Duck (Anas rubripcs) remains an undivided species ranging 

 over eastern North America." 



That the "expenditure of energy" here mentioned has been 

 largely on my part and not at all on that of the Black Duck is indi- 

 cated by a preceding passage in which reference is made to two of 

 my articles. Dr. Dwight advises his readers to consult them but 

 does not himself directly discuss any of the facts and evidence they 



