AIX. 99 



green; chest rich chestnut glossed with reddish purple, and marked 

 with triangular white spots ; sides of breast crossed with a broad pure 

 white bar and a broad deep black one immediately behind it ; sides and 

 flanks delicately waved with black on a buff or pale fulvous ground, the 

 outermost feathers beautifully ornamented with broad crescentic bars 

 of pure white and velvety black ; belly white ; bill (in life) beautifully 

 varied with jet-black, milk-white, lilac, red, orange, and yellow ; length 

 about 19.00-20.50, wing 9.00-9.50, culmen 1.40. Adult female: Feathers 

 round base of bill, around eye (and extending thence back to the occi- 

 put), chin, and whole throat, white ; rest of head leaden gray, the crown 

 and slightly developed occipital crest glossed with greenish; chest 

 brownish, spotted with buff or whitish ; remaining lower parts chiefly 

 white ; upper parts chiefly grayish brown, richly glossed on wings, 

 scapulars, etc., with reddish purple and other metallic tints ; length 

 about 17.00-19.50. Downy young: Above dark hair-brown, darker, or 

 approaching clove-brown, on top of head and tail ; a dingy whitish bar 

 along posterior edge of arm-wing, and a roundish spot of same on each 

 side of rump; lores, superciliary stripe, and sides of head generally, 

 bright sulphury buff, crossed by a broad stripe of blackish brown, from 

 eye to occiput ; lower parts dingy white, the sides more brownish, crossed 

 on flanks by a whitish bar. Nest in holes in trees, often at a great height 

 from the ground. Eggs 2.08 X 1-58, pale buff, or buffy white. Hob. 

 Whole of temperate North America ; Cuba ; accidental in Europe. 



144. A. sponsa (LiNN.). Wood Duck. 



a*. Feathering at base of bill extending farther forward above than below, and 

 forming a straight line from the side of the forehead to the lower basal cor- 

 ner of the mandible ; depth of bill at base not greater than its width ; 

 feathers on side of neck (in adult male) much elongated, forming a conspicu- 

 ous ruff of soft narrow feathers ; innermost tertial with the shaft much bent, 

 giving the outer web of falcate form, the inner (upper) web widened into an 

 excessively broad sail-like ornament ; tail much less than half as long as wing, 

 nearly even, and shorter than the lower coverts. (Subgenus Dendronessa 



SWAINSON. 1 ) 



Adult male : Smaller than A. sponsa ; similar in general style of coloration, 

 but middle upper portion of crest chestnut, lengthened feathers of sides 

 of neck tawny chestnut, streaked with ochraceous, whole loral region 

 buff, etc. Hob. Eastern Asia (domesticated extensively in China and 

 Japan). 



A. galericulata (LiNN.). Mandarin Duck.* 



1 Dendronessa SWAINS., F. B. A. ii. 1831, 497. Type, Anas galericulata LINN. 

 s Anas galericulata LiXN., S. N. ed. 10, i. 1758, 128. Aix galericulata " EYTON, 



Mon. Anat. 1838." 



