BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 169 



MASKED DUCK {Nomonyx dominicus). 



Length. — 13 to 14.50 inches. 



Adult Male. — Chin, throat, front and sides of head to behind eye black; 

 behind this mask chestnut red all round, brightest on back and light- 

 ening on belly to rusty yellowish; often more or less marked with 

 darker above and below; white wing patch; bill mainly blue, black- 

 tipped; feet dusky; iris brown, with a bluish ring; tail feathers long 

 (4.50), narrow, stiff and pointed. 



Adult Female and Young. — Sides of head buffy, turning to whitish on chin 

 and fore throat; top of head, a broad streak from upper base of bill 

 through eye (and sometimes another from lower base of bill through 

 cheek) dark brown or blackish; back blackish, regularly barred with 

 buff; plumage generally rusty dappled with dusky; a white wing patch 

 as in male, but smaller; below washed with rusty. 



Range. — Central and South America and the West Indies north to the Rio 

 Grande or Mexican boundary of the United States. Accidental in this 

 country; recorded from Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Vermont and 

 Maryland. 



History. 

 This bird is a mere straggler in Massachusetts. There is 

 but one record; a male in full plumage taken August 27, 1889, 

 in Maiden. It was shot in a small pond of less than one acre, 

 where it had been seen for more than a week, and is now in 

 the C. B. Cory collection.^ 



Geese. 



The Geese and the so-called tree Ducks (genus Dendro- 

 cygna) comprise the subfamily Anserince. The Geese are con- 

 siderably larger than the Ducks; the legs and neck are longer 

 and the body not so much flattened, and they are more at 

 home upon land. They feed very largely upon grasses, grains 

 and vegetable matter, and are valued for the table. 



The Geese have no wing patch or speculum, and the sexes 

 resemble each other closely. In size and length of neck they 

 come between the Ducks and the Swans. They molt but 

 once a year. With some few exceptions the plumage is not 

 so varied as that of the Ducks. 



1 Cory, C. B.: Auk, 1889, p. 336. 



