BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



SUBFAMILY ANATIN^E. RIVER DUCKS. 



THE RIVER DUCKS. 



About three dozen representatives of this subfamily are attributed by different 

 modern writers to North America, and of this number probably fifteen species occur 

 quite regularly in Pennsylvania. Many of these ducks feed principally on a vege- 

 table diet and are highly esteemed as food, but others, especially those that inhabit 

 sea-coast regions, and subsist almost entirely on different forms of aquatic animal- 

 life as mollusks, shrimps, etc., have usually coarse, dark-colored and unpalatable 

 flesh. All are good swimmers and some of them are expert divers. 



GENUS ANAS LINN^US. 



Anas boschas LINN. 



Mallard. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill little longer than head, broad and flattened toward the rounded end. 



" Male. Head and upper part of neck glossy-green, which is separated from the 

 dark chestnut-brown of lower part of neck and breast by a white ring. Under parts 

 and sides, with the scapulars, pale-gray, very finely undulated with dusky ; other 

 scapulars with brownish tinge ; fore part of back reddish-brown ; posterior more 

 olivaceous ; crissum and upper tail coverts black ; tail externally white ; wing 

 coverts brownish-gray the greater coverts tipped with white and narrowly with 

 black ; speculum purplish-violet, terminated with black ; a recurved tuft of feathers 

 on rump. 



" female. Wing same as in male ; under parts plain whitish ochrey, each feather 

 obscurely blotched with dusky ; head and neck similar, spotted and streaked with 

 dusky ; chin and throat above unspotted ; upper parts dark-brown, feathers edged 

 with reddish-brown." Baird's B. of N. A. 



Length about 24 inches ; extent about 35. 



Habitat. Northern parts of Northern Hemisphere ; in America south to Panama 

 and Cuba, breeding southward to the northern United States. 



Common spring- and fall migrant, much more numerous on the Sus- 

 quehanna river and about the lake shore in Erie county than elsewhere 

 throughout the state. Large flocks of these ducks are to be seen every 

 spring and fall frequenting the grassy ponds on the peninsula at Erie 

 bay, where, Mr. James Thompson, of Erie city, informs me, a few strag- 

 glers remain sometimes during the summer and rear their young. "The 

 Mallard's nest, placed on the ground, g-enerally close to the water, is 

 made up of dried grasses, weeds, feathers, etc. The eggs are described 



