558 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



gloss on the speculum are almost as much developed as in the adult male. 

 The bill of the young birds of both sexes is pale reddish brown, and the legs 

 and feet are flesh-colour. Males in their first nuptial plumage are marked 

 with white on the throat, and have a few dark crescentic bands on the 

 breast, dark bars on the lower belly, and the rich black of the under tail- 

 coverts is mottled with chestnut and white. Adult males in moulting- 

 plumage may be distinguished from adult females by the greater brilliancy 

 of the blue and metallic green on the wing, the plain dark upper tail- 

 coverts, and by the generally darker colour of the entire plumage. Young 

 in down closely resemble those of the Wigeon in having indistinct pale 

 spots on the upper parts, but they possess the dark-brown stripe through 

 the eye so characteristic of most of the species of the genus Anas. When 

 first hatched the bill is not widened at the tip, but it grows very rapidly, and 

 before the first feathers are assumed is recognizable as that of a Shoveller. 



