RUDDY SHEILDRAKE. 105 



" Fore head, cheeks, and chin, pale ochreous-yel- 

 low; region of the eyes, crown of the head and 

 nape of the neck, greyish white ; neck, as far as the 

 collar, ochreous-yellow, tinged with orange ; collar 

 about half an inch in width, glossed with green ; 

 breast, mantle, scapulars, and under parts of the 

 body, gall-stone yellow tinged with orange, being 

 deepest upon the breast ; the feathers on the upper 

 parts of the body have their margins paler, and the 

 long tertials pass into sienna yellow ; lesser and mid- 

 dle wing -covers white; secondary quills green, gloss- 

 ed with purple, and forming a large speculum; 

 greater quills black ; lower part of the back, upper 

 tail-covers, and tail, black glossed with green ; bill, 

 legs, and feet black." * Female is said to want the 

 black collar. 



We shall next examine the true ducks, or those 

 where the lamina? of the bill are farthest developed, 

 and shall show first the form of which the common 

 wild duck is typical, as carrying forward the great 

 facility or domestication in a species which in its 

 native haunts exhibits exceeding wariness. We 

 do not here find the laminae either much developed 

 or exposed, at the same time the whole food is taken 

 by searching for it in the mud or among the aquatic 

 vegetation, as any one may observe by noticing our 

 common breeds of ducks while feeding, grain or 

 food of any kind when placed even in clean water, 

 * Selby ii. p. 295, 



