THE DUSKY DUCK. 489 



with down and other soft material. The eggs are from ten 

 to fourteen in number : they are usually ovoidal in shape, 

 and vary in color from dirty yellowish-white to an obscure 

 olivaceous-green. Their dimensions vary from 2.42 by 1.75 

 (Albion, Wis.) to 2.26 by 1.68 (Nova Scotia). 



ANAS OBSCURA. Gmelin. 

 The Dusky Duck; Black Duck. 



Anas obscura, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 541. Wils. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 

 141. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 15. /&., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 244. 

 Anas (boschas) obscura, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 392. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill greenish ; feet red ; body generally blackish-brown ; the feathers obscurely 

 margined with reddish-brown ; those anteriorly with a concealed V-shaped mark, 

 more or less visible on the sides of the breast; head and neck brownish-yellow, 

 spotted with black; the top of head and nape dark-brown, with a green gloss on the 

 sides behind; wings dull-blackish, with a dull-greenish gloss; speculum violet, ter- 

 minated with black ; inner tertials hoary gray towards tip ; axillars and inside of 

 wing white; tail of eighteen feathers; iris dark-brown. 



Female similar, but rather duller; the light edges to the under feathers more con- 

 spicuous; the sides of head without the greenish-gloss; the speculum bluish, with 

 less violet. 



Length of male, twenty-two inches ; wing nearly twelve ; tarsus, one and eighty 

 one-hundredths ; commissure, two and fifty-six one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. Atlantic region of North America; not yet detected on the Pacific, nor 

 in Europe. 



This is the most plainly marked, as well as perhaps the largest, of our river 

 ducks, and excelled by none in the excellence of its flesh. 



This species, generally but improperly known as the 

 Black Duck, is the most abundant of all our fresh-water 

 ducks. It breeds in all the New-England States, but is 

 found in the greatest abundance in the more northern por- 

 tions of them. The country around Lake Umbagog, Me., 

 seems to be a favorite breeding-ground with this species ; 

 almost every patch of meadow having one or more of its 

 nests. 



The nest is built about the last week in April or the first 

 in May. It is placed in a secluded locality in a tussock of 

 grass, or beneath a thicket of briers or weeds ; usually in a 



