612 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



as summer residents and breeding in the following counties: Posey, 

 Knox, Gibson, Vigo, Monroe, Carroll, Wabash, Tippecanoe, Starke, 

 Newton, Lake, Laporte, Dekalb, Steuben, and Lagrange. In none of 

 them are they found in such numbers as they were fifteen or twenty 

 years ago, and in some of them in which they were the most common 

 duck, they are not now seen in summer. I do not know that a Wood 

 Duck has bred in Franklin County in fifteen years. Before that time 

 there were places where they were known to rear their young each 

 season. Mr. C. E. Aiken says it was formerly one of the most abundant 

 summer residents, but now only seen occasionally. During several 

 trips to Water Valley (on the Kankakee River), in 1886, '87 and '88, 

 in April and May, he saw only two or three pairs. Mr. J. G. Parker, 

 Jr., says they breed in the woods bordering our rivers and lakes. Until 

 late years the Kankakee River region afforded excellent .Wood Duck 

 shooting. The Burr Oak bottoms along that river have been favorite 

 nesting places. In 1888 B. W. Evermann, writing of the ducks of 

 Carroll County, says: "Formerly a common summer resident, but now 

 one of the rarest ducks of this region." (The Auk, October, 1888, 

 p. 346.) 



The common note of the drake is peet-peet, but the alarm note is not 

 unlike the first attempts of a young cock to crow. It may be expressed 

 by the syllables "oe-eek." 



19. GENUS CAIRIXA FLEMING. 



38. ( .) Cairina moschata (Lixx.). 



Muscovy Duck. 



Adult Male. Head, neck and lower parts uniform glossy brownish- 

 black; upper parts brilliant metallic blackish-green, glossed with pur- 

 ple anteriorly and on rump; wing coverts and above and below entirely 

 pure white; caruncles along sides of forehead, etc., bright pinkish-red 

 or rose red in life; bill varied with blackish and pinkish white or light 

 rose-color. Adult Female. Entirely brownish-black, except some of the 

 upper greater wing coverts, which are white; upper parts glossed with 

 metallic green and purple. 



Length of male, nearly 36.00; wing, about 16.00; tail, 9.00; tarsus, 

 2.00 or more. Female smaller. 



RANGE. Tropical America, from Paraguay and southern Brazil to 

 Mexico and Louisiana. 



A specimen of this beautiful duck was shot near the mouth of Big 

 Miami River, in Indiana, in January, 1890, and is now in the posset 

 sion of Mr. J. M. Bauer, of Lawrenceburg, Ind. Mr. Robert Ridgway 



