SWIMMING BIRDS. Ducks 



Female : Dull ; under parts yellowish, blotched faintly with dusky ; 



above back, brown ; some feathers with rusty edges. Head and 



neck mottled like under parts. 

 Season : A wandering visitor, taken occasionally in the autumn on 



the Housatonic at Stratford. 

 Breeds : Northward from the Northern States, more frequently hi the 



interior. 



Nest : Of dry grass, weeds, and feathers, on the ground near the water. 

 Eggs : 8-10, yellow, gray. 

 Range : Northern part of Northern Hemisphere. In America south 



in winter to Panama and Cuba. 



A very handsome and notable game Duck, living chiefly 

 on vegetable diet, and having delicate flesh ; plentiful around 

 the Great Lakes. 



Black Duck: Anas obscura. 



Length : 22 inches. 



Male and Female : Bill greenish yellow. Above dusky, but not black ; 

 feathers edged with rusty brown. Neck, throat, and sides of 

 head streaked with grayish and dark. Below brownish. Specu- 

 lum violet and black ; in the male tipped with white. Legs red. 



Season : A resident, but more plentiful in the migrations. 



Breeds : From New Jersey to Labrador. 



Nest : A mat of marsh grasses on the ground. 



Eggs : 8-10, a drab yellow. 



Range : Eastern North America, west to Utah and Texas, north to 

 Labrador. 



This Black Duck (which is not black) is a great favourite 

 among sportsmen, on account of its delicately flavoured 

 flesh. It is plentiful about the larger ponds all through the 

 autumn, and I have seen it on the mill-pond in December 

 when there was thin ice on the margin. 



The late Dr. Charles Slover Allen gives a delightful 

 account of its breeding-habits on Plum Island, in TJie 

 Auk of January, 1893, from which the following is a par- 

 agraph : 



"Early in the morning, May 27 (1888), I saw a Rail dodge into a 

 little clump from the water's edge, and in trying to find it I stepped 

 into the Duck's nest, flushing the bird and partly breaking one of the 

 s 257 



