DUSKY OR BLACK DUCK. 191 



CHAPTER XIX. 



DUSKY OB BLACK DUCK. 



(Anas Obscura.*) 

 Black Mallard in the West. 



Adult Male. Bill about the length of the head, high- 

 er than broad at the base, depressed and widened to- 

 wards the end, rounded at the tip. Head of moderate 

 size, oblong, compressed ; neck, rather long and slender, 

 body, full, depressed ; feet, short, stout, placed a little 

 behind the centre of the body ; legs, bare a little above 

 the joint ; tarsus, short, a little compressed ; hind toe, 

 extremely small. Plumage dense, soft and elastic ; on 

 the head and neck the feathers linear oblong ; on the 

 other parts in general broad and rounded. Wings of 

 moderate breadth and length, acute. Tail, short, much 

 rounded, of eighteen acute feathers. 



Bill, yellowish green ; iris, dark brown ; feet, orange 

 red ; the webs, dusky. The upper part of the head is 

 glossy brownish black ; the feathers margined with light 

 brown ; the sides of the head and a band over the eye 

 are light grayish brown, with longitudinal dusky 

 streaks ; the middle of the neck is similar, but more 

 dusky. The general color is blackish brown, a little 

 paler beneath. All the feathers margined with reddish 

 brown. The wing coverts are grayish-dusky, with a 

 faint tinge of green ; the ends of the secondary coverts 

 velvet-black. Primaries and their coverts blackish 



