18 WILD mJCTT. 



with a slightly darker shade. Legs and toes, orange; webs, 

 darker orange. 



In some instances the female has been known to assume the 

 plumage of the male, even to the curled feathers of the tail. 



The young have a tinge of yellow on the whole of the 

 breast. The male resembles the female till after the first 

 moult. 



Sir William Jardine observes, 'The Wild Duck is sometimes 

 subject to variety; we have seen the drakes having the upper 

 parts of a bluish grey, the dark breast paler; and we possess 

 a Duck shot from a flock, which has the wings and part of 

 the head and neck white.' 



A hybrid between the male Wigeon and the female Wild 

 Duck, has been described as a separate species, under the name 

 of the Bimaculated Duck, so called, apparently, from two 

 patches of chesnut brown, margined and varied with white, on 

 the side of the head and neck. It was supposed, subsequently 

 for some time, to be a hybrid between the Mallard and the 

 Teal, but Frederick Bond, Esq., in a letter to me on the 

 subject, says, 'I have a fine specimen, of a hybrid between 

 the Wigeon and the Wild Duck, which closely approaches the 

 original specimen of the Bimaculated Duck, but being only 

 a bird of the year, the markings on the head are not very 

 well defined; but another specimen of the same brood, now 

 alive, had the markings much better defined, and if it lives 

 to moult again, I hope, and fully believe, that it will prove a 

 complete Bimaculated Duck. The female of the brood is exactly 

 like the specimen which formerly belonged to Mr. Vigors, and 

 is now with the male in the British Museum.' 



Mr. Vigors' specimen, just mentioned, was taken in a decoy 

 at Boarstall, near Otmoor, Buckinghamshire, in the year 1771. 

 The following is the description of it, compiled from Mr. Selby's 

 account: Male; bill, blackish grey, passing towards the base 

 and edges into orange yellow; between the bill and the eye, 

 and behind the ear coverts are two irregular patches of chesnut 

 brown, margined and varied with white. Head on the sides, 

 dark glossy green, on the front, crown, and back, very deep 

 reddish brown, glossed with purple black, and passing on the 

 back of the neck into deep violet purple; on the sides, the 

 neck is dark glossy green, and on the rest of the upper part 

 reddish brown, with oval black spots; breast, on the middle 

 part, pale reddish brown, spotted with black; below, yellowish 

 white, with waved black lines, most distinct on the sides. 



