318 FEATHERED GAME 



thirty-six inches. Iris brown. Feet bluish 

 gray with dusky webs. Bill blackish. During 

 the moulting season he puts on a dress like the 

 female's but darker and still showing the cop- 

 pery speculum. 



The female is smaller and less showily 

 dressed ; principally dull yellowish brown for a 

 body color, this mottled with dark brown and 

 dusky, the dark colors on the centres of the 

 feathers. Speculum of duller tones, and but 

 little different from other feathering of the 

 wing, perhaps from its less attractive setting. 

 She lacks the lengthened feathers of the tail but 

 may be known at once by her slender neck and 

 race-horse lines. In his first season the young 

 drake, as the country people say, ''takes after 

 his mother," and aside from his lustrous specu- 

 lum is hard to distinguish from her. 



THE WOOD DUCK. BRIDAL DUCK. 

 SUMMER DUCK. 



(Aix sponsa.) 



Among the waterfowl of all America the lit- 

 tle Wood Duck may claim the precedence of 

 grace and beauty. Few birds indeed may equal 



