NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 79 



133. BLACK DUCK. Anas obscura Gmel. Geog. Dist. Eastern North Ameri- 

 ca, west to Utah, Texas, north to Labrador, breeding from the Northern United 

 States northward. 



The Dusky Duck, or Black Mallard, is much less common in the interior than 

 along the Atlantic coast. The characteristic and one of the commonest ducks of 

 New England, where it breeds at large, and from thence northeastward, but is most 

 numerous during the migrations. The eggs are from six to twelve in number, usu- 

 ally seven or eiglH; are elliptical, or nearly so in shape; measure about 2.30x1.70, 

 and vary from pale buff to pale greenish-buff. Incubation period is from the last 

 of April to the early part of June. The nest is placed on the ground, in grass or 

 rushes in the neighborhood of ponds, pools, and streams, in meadows and sometimes 

 in swamps. It is a large and neatly arranged structure of weeds and grass, nicely 

 hollowed and lined with down and feathers from the breast of the bird.* In rare 

 instances it has been known to nest in the hollow of a tree, or a "stub" projecting 

 from the water of a swamp. Mr. Frazar found the nest of this Duck in Labrador 

 usually placed upon the "outreaching branches of stunted spruces," which are 

 seldom higher than four feet. The bird may be known by its resembling the female 

 of the Mallard, A. boscJias, but darker in color. 



134. FLORIDA DUCK. Anas ftdvigitla Ridgw. Geog. Dist. Florida, Kansas. 

 This is a local, lighter colored species, which is resident in Florida. They are 



smaller than the northern birds. The eggs are deposited during the first and second 

 weeks in April. They are similar to those of the Black Mallard, but smaller, 

 averaging 2.15x1.61. 



134a. MOTTLED DUCK. Anas fulvigula maculosa (Senn.) Geog. Dist. East- 

 ern Texas and north to Kansas. 



The types of this subspecies were taken by Mr. J. A. Singley in the latter part of 

 March and the first part of April, 1889, in the marshes between the Nueces river 

 and Nueces bay. A male and female were shot and in the oviduct of the female a 

 fully developed egg was found. Mr. Singley informs me that the egg could not be 

 differentiated from those in a set of Florida Duck's eggs, A. fulvigula. Mr. C. W. 

 Crandall has a set of seven eggs of the Mottled duck, taken in a large marsh near 

 Iberia, La. The nest consisted of a foundation of rushes lined with down, and was 

 placed on top of an old muskrat nest. The eggs are nearly elliptical in shape, of a 

 pale greenish buff color and measure as follows: 2.14x1.57, 2.15x1.58, 2.23x1.53, 

 2.18x1.55, 2.25x1.60, 2.17x1.60, 2.19x1.58 inches. 



135. GADWALL. Anas strepera Linn. Geog. Dist. Nearly cosmopolitan. In 

 North America breeding chiefly within the United States. 



The Gadwall, or Gray Duck, is a widely diffused species in most parts of the 

 world. In North America, during the breeding season, it may be found nesting 

 anywhere, especially south of the British Provinces. Common in meadows, and in 

 grain fields near marshes and lakes in Minnesota, nesting in the middle of June 

 and depositing from eight to twelve eggs in a cavity of the ground. Mr. A. M. 

 Shields states that this Duck is a resident in the vicinity of Los Angeles, Cal., but is 

 not met with in great numbers. He found a nest containing eleven eggs on April 

 16, these were apparently about two weeks incubated. The nest was a slight 

 hollow, amongst a thick bunch of weeds, six feet from me water's edge; it was com- 



* Oology of New England, p. 96. 



