WOOD DUCK. 251 



in extent ; till, red, margined with black ; a spot of black lies between 

 the nostrils, reaching, nearly to the tip, which is also of the same 

 color, and furnished with a large, hooked nail ; irides, orange red ; 

 front, crown, and pendant crest, rich, glossy, bronze green, ending in 

 violet, elegantly marked with a line of pure white, running from the 

 upper mandible over the eye, and with another band of white pro- 

 ceeding from behind the eye, both mingling their long, pendant plumes 

 with the green and violet ones, producing a rich effect ; cheeks and 

 sides of the upper neck, violet; chin, throat, and collar round the 

 neck, pure white, curving up in the form of a crescent, nearly to the 

 posterior part of the eye ; the white collar is bounded below with 

 black; breast, dark violet brown, marked on the fore part with 

 minute triangular spots of white, increasing in size until they spread 

 into the white of the belly ; each side of the breast is bounded by a 

 large crescent of white, and. that again by a broader one of deep 

 black ; sides, under the wings, thickly and beautifully marked with 

 fine, undulating, parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish 

 drab ; the flanks are ornamented with broad, alternate, semicircular 

 bands of black and white ; sides of the vent, rich, light violet ; tail 

 covers, long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which they 

 descend, and of a deep black, glossed with green ; back, dusky 

 bronze, reflecting green ; scapulars, black; tail, tapering, dark glossy 

 green above, below, dusky ; primaries, dusky, silvery hoary, without, 

 tipped with violet blue ; secondaries, greenish blue, tipped with white ; 

 wing coverts, violet blue, tipped with black ; vent, dusky ; legs and 

 feet, yellowish red ; claws, strong and hooked. 



The above is as accurate a description as I can give of a very per- 

 fect specimen now before me. 



The female has the head slightly crested ; crown, dark purple ; 

 behind the eye, a bar of white ; chin and throat, for two inches, also 

 white ; head and neck, dark drab ; breast, dusky brown, marked with 

 large triangular spots of white ; back, dark, glossy, bronze brown, 

 with some gold and greenish reflections. Speculum of the win-gs, 

 nearly the same as in the male, but the fine penciling of the sides, 

 and the long hair-like, tail coverts, arc wanting; the tail is also 

 shorter. 



