NEW MEXICAN DUCK 157 



cover from the summer eclipse plumage until very late in the fall or early 

 in the winter, so that they are rarely seen in the most perfect and re- 

 splendent plumage, now that spring shooting has been abolished." The 

 later arrivals are known locally throughout the West by such names as 

 "ice mallard," "yellow-legs" and several others, to distinguish them from 

 the earlier arrivals. 



Market hunting is now prohibited and the rapid extermination of 

 our wildfowl through this agency has fortunately been checked. Never- 

 theless, the following examples of the former slaughter of the Mallard by 

 market hunters will be of interest, and are fair examples of the toll which 

 used to be levied on many other species. Cooke (1906) writes: "Big 

 Lake, Arkansas, was and still is one of the favorite resorts, and during 

 the winter of 1893-94 a single gunner sold 8,000 Mallards, while the total 

 number sent to market from this one place amounted to 120,000." For- 

 bush (1909) says: "In 1900 I visited a gunning preserve in Florida 

 where northern sportsmen were shooting ducks by the hundred and giv- 

 ing them away to their friends and to settlers. One of these gentlemen, 

 armed with repeating guns and supplied with a man to load and others 

 to drive the birds to his decoys, is said to have killed, on a wager, over 

 100 ducks in less than two hours. Even within the last two years reports 

 of reliable observers on the Gulf coast aver that market hunters there 

 have been killing 100 birds each per day." 



New Mexican Duck 



Anas diazi novimexicana 

 (a-nas, dee-az-i, no-vi-mex-i-ka-na) 



Colour Plate No. 8 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Anas, Latin, meaning a duck, diazi, in honour of Sr. Augustin Diaz, Director, 

 Mexican Geographical and Exploring Commission, 1886; novimexicana, from Latin, 

 novus, meaning new, and mexicana, meaning of Mexico, thus, of New Mexico. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



Not known. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULTS, BOTH SEXES. WINTER PLUMAGE: Practically identical with female 

 Mallard, differing as stated below. 



ECLIPSE. AUTUMN AND JUVENILE PLUMAGE: The sequence and extent of these 

 plumages are similar to those of Black Duck. Breast feathers of juveniles of both 

 sexes show breast-feather markings similar to adult female, as described below. 



SPECIMEN IDENTIFICATION 



ADULT MALE. General effect: A large, mottled-brown duck. Chief distinguish- 

 ing features (a) hind toe without lobe, (b) speculum bordered in front and behind 

 with black and white bars, white bar in front sometimes mixed with dusky or buff, 



