SPECIES 5. ANAS BOSCHAS. 



THE MALLARD. 

 [Plate LXX. Fig. 7.] 



LATH. Syn. m, p. 489. BEWICK, u,p. 291. Le Canard Sauvage y 

 BRISS. vi, p. 318. 4. BUFF, ix, p. 115. pi. 7, 8. PEALE'S .Mu- 

 seum, JVo. 2864.* 



THE Mallard, or common Wild Drake, is so universally 

 known as scarcely to require a description. It measures twen- 

 ty-four inches in length, by three feet in extent, and weighs 

 upwards of two pounds and a half;t the bill is greenish yellow; 

 irides hazel; head and part of the neck deep glossy changeable 

 green, ending in a narrow collar of white; the rest of the neck 

 and breast are of a dark purplish chestnut; lesser wing coverts 

 brown ash, greater crossed near the extremities with a band of 

 white, and tipt with another of deep velvetty black; below this 

 lies the speculum, or beauty spot, of a rich and splendid light 

 purple, with green and violet reflexions, bounded on every 

 side with black; quills pale brownish ash; back brown, skirted 

 with paler; scapulars whitish, crossed with fine undulating lines 

 of black; rump and tail coverts black glossed with green, ter- 

 tials very broad and pointed at the ends; tail consisting of eigh- 

 teen feathers, whitish, centred with brown ash, the four middle 

 ones excepted, which are narrow, black glossed with violet, re- 



* JJnas Bo&chas, GMEL. Syst. i, p. 538, JVo. 40. Ind. Orn. p. 850, JVo. 49. 

 rfrct. Zool. JVb. 494. Br. Zool JVo. 279. Le canard Sauvage, PI. Enl. 776, 

 male; 777, female. PEALE'S Museum, No. 2865, female. 



t Mr. Ord shot a male on the Delaware, in the month of April, which 

 weighed three pounds five ounces; and he saw them in Florida, in the win- 

 ter, when they are fatter than in the spring-, of greater weight. In the 

 month of March he shot two females, in East Florida, weighing two pounds 

 each. 



