Vol. XXIX 

 1912 



] Phillips, The American Black Ducks. 297 



further on for A. icijciUiatm and along the hnes of what appears to 

 be a distinctly Mallard character. In one specimen, Miis. Comp. 

 Zool., No. 54135, the fifth secondary from the outside shows no 

 metallic color. Its inner web is normal, while its outer is brown, 

 dusky at the shaft, and light buff on the edge. 



Taken as a whole this series appears very uniform in color and 

 does not present the variety of appearances which is seen in A. 

 tristis. In the latter the tips of the secondaries very often show 

 a narrow white band, and occasionally a specimen is found that 

 shows a white or whitish band at each end of the speculum, thus 

 approaching the Mallard type. 



The speculum color of A. diazi varies, as it does also in A. yUity- 

 rhynchos and in A. tristis, from a metallic violaceous green to a 

 violaceous purple. This difference has apparently nothing to do 

 with age or sex and is not a character of specific importance, except 

 within wide bounds. It seems to have been used too frequently 

 in describing specific differences. 



Anas fulvigula — Florida Duck and A. f. maculosa — 

 Mottled or Texan Duck. 



As originally described by Sennett (Auk, 1889, p. 263) the Texan 

 form was separated from the true Florida Duck on the basis of 

 several indefinite characters, which I should like to consider 

 briefly. It is certainly a fact of peculiar interest if two races of 

 Ducks could be found within such an area as the southeastern 

 states where except for a very few exceptional cases the avifauna 

 is so uniform. 



In the British Museum Catalogue, Vol. XXVII, p. 203, Salvadori 

 says, "In my opinion A. maculosa is scarcely different from A. 

 fulvigula. 



I have at hand a fine series of A. maculosa. There are 3 from 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 5 from the collection of Mr. 

 John E. Thayer and 4 from the collection of Mr. Win. Brewster. 

 These have been carefully compared with a series of 7 Florida 

 Ducks in the Museum of Comparative Zoology and 13 from Mr. 

 Brewster's collection. I do not hesitate to say that as far as I can 

 see there is no racial difference between these 12 specimens from 



