MASKED DUCK. 243 



more striking plumage even than the summer dress of 

 the Ruddy Duck. Occasionally this species straggles far 

 to the southward in South America, and it has been pro- 

 cured in the Argentine Republic and in Chili, but this 

 must be regarded in the same light as its various appear- 

 ances in our northern waters, merely as instances of a few 

 individuals having strayed, from exceptional causes, far 

 away from their usual habitats. 



NOMONYX DOMINIC US. 



Geographical Distribution. Tropical America, from the West 

 Indies and northern South America to the Lower Rio Grande; 

 straggling occasionally as far north as Wisconsin and Massa- 

 chusetts, and south to the Argentine Republic and Chili. 



Adult Male. Head, excepting nape, and chin, intense black. 

 Nape, throat, neck, back, scapulars, and upper tail coverts, dark 

 rusty cinnambn; center of feathers, black, showing conspicuously. 

 Lower back and rump, dark brown spotted with black, and some 

 feathers edged with white. Upper part of breast, uniform, dark 

 rusty cinnamon grading into pale reddish buff. " Sides and flanks 

 darker, with black centers to the feathers. Wings, blackish 

 brown, with a long, narrow, white speculum. Under tail coverts, 

 cinnamon blotched with black. Tail, dark rufous brown; shafts 

 of feathers, black. Rill and eyelids, pale blue; median line on 

 maxilla, nail, and bare skin of chin, black. Mandible, reddish 

 white; tip, black. "Outer aspect of tarsus and two outer 

 toes, dark brown or black; the inner side of the tarsus, inner toe, 

 and membranes, pale brown spotted with black" (Gundlach). 

 Iris, dark brown. Total length, about 15 inches; wing, sj; 

 culmen, i-^; tarsus, i. Description taken from individual 

 killed at Maiden, Mass., in 1889, and now in the Field Col- 

 umbian Museum, Chicago. 



Adult Female. Top of head, stripe from base of bill through 

 eye to occiput, and one from gape to occiput, black. Super- 

 ciliary stripe and rest of head, buff, becoming whitish on chin 

 and throat. Neck y buff mottled with brown. Upper parts, 

 black, feathers edged with deep buff. Wings, dark brown, 

 feathers tipped with yellowish white. Speculum, white. Pri- 



