74 AMEKICAN GAME. 



pale gray, delicately crossed and pencilled with number- 

 less narrow, waved, dusky lines, which on the sides and 

 long feathers that cover the thighs are more strongly 

 and distinctly marked. The upper and under tail 

 coverts, lower part of the back and rump, are black, the 

 latter glossed with green ; the four middle tail feathers 

 are also black, with purple reflections-, and, like those of 

 the domestic duck, are stiffly curled upward. The rest 

 are sharp-pointed, and fade off to the exterior edges 

 from brown to dull white. Iris of the eye bright 

 yellow, feet, legs and webs reddish orange, claws 

 black. 



The female, and young male until after the first moult, 

 are very different in plumage from the adult drake, par- 

 taking none of its beauties, with the exception of the 

 spot on the wings. All the other parts are plain brown, 

 marked with black, the centre of every feather being 

 dark and fading to the edges. She makes her nest, lays 

 her eggs from ten to sixteen in number, of a greenish 

 white generally in the most sequestered mosses or bogs, 

 far from the haunts of man, and hidden from his sight 

 among reeds and rushes. To her young, helpless, un- 

 fledged family, and they are nearly three months before 

 they can fly, she is a fond, attentive and watchful parent, 

 carrying or leading them from one pool to another, as 

 her fears or inclinations direct her, and she is known to 

 use the same wily stratagems, in order to mislead the 

 sportsman and his dog, as those resorted to by the rutfed 



