NATATORES — ANATID.E — FULIGULA. 325 



THE BASTARD BROADBILL. 



FULIGULA RUFITORQUES. 

 PLATE CXV. FIG. 255. 



Anas fuligula. Wilson, Am, Om. Vol. 8, p. 60, pi. 67, fig. 5 (male). 



Fuligula rufitorques. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 393. Nuttall, Man. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 439. 

 F. id., Ring-neck Duck. Audubon, Birds of Am. Vol.6, p. 320, pi. 398 (male and female), Giraud, Birds of 

 Long island, p. 324. 



Characteristics. Mirror bluish ash ; chin white : a bluish white band across the bill. 

 Male, black ; belly whitish ; sides waved with grey : a chesnut collar. 

 Female, glossy brownish ; face and belly white : very similar to female 

 of preceding. Length, 17' 0. 



Description. Bill broad, subequal in depth and breadth at the base, shorter than the head, 

 about 2" long ; sides of the tip linear ; the end in front of the band, pitted ; the descending 

 central part of the frontlet rounded, not pointed. Feathers of the head narrow, 1 ' long, and 

 capable of erection into a subcrest. Tarsus short, rather rounded, 1*3 long, somewhat 

 exceeded in length by the middle toe. Tail very short, broad, and of sixteen feathers. 



Color. Male : Bill black ; at the base, its margin, and a band over the tip light blue. 

 Head and upper part of the neck black, with deep purple reflections ; a broad brownish red 

 ring surrounding the neck. Breast, back-coverts, tertials, vent and under tail-coverts black 

 glossed with green : lesser coverts, quills and tail dark brown. Secondaries slate, narrowly 

 tipped with white. Beneath whitish, finely sprinkled and waved with brown, becoming white 

 as it ascends before the wings, and gradually more dusky towards the vent. A triangular 

 white spot at the base of the lower mandible. Female, with the band across the tip of the 

 bill, and the neck-collar, indistinct : resembling the female of F. marila, but the flat triangular 

 space near the base of the bill larger : breast brownish white ; back blackish brown. 



Length, 16-0 -18*0. 



We are indebted to the Prince of Canino for our first positive knowledge of this as a dis- 

 tinct species. It had previously been confounded by Wilson with the cristata (A. fuligula, 

 Linnajus) of Europe. The complete history of its incubation and migrations is yet to be 

 learned. It is said to breed in high northern latitudes. On the coast of this State, it appears 

 in the autumn and spring, and in the interior is noticed during the whole winter. It extends 

 along the coast in its winter migration southwardly from Massachusetts to Mexico. Peculiar 

 to America. 



