306 BRITISH BIRDS. 



thighs, but there they are paler: the belly, to the 

 vent, is white: the ridge of the wing, and adjoining 

 coverts, are dusky ash brown: the greater coverts 

 brown, edged with white, (in some specimens 

 wholly white,) and tipped with black, which forms 

 an upper border to the changeable green beauty- 

 spot of the wings, which is also bordered on the 

 under side by another stripe formed by the deep 

 velvet black tips of the secondary quills: the ex- 

 terior webs of the adjoining quills are white, and 

 those next the back, which are very long, are of a 

 deep brown, (in some specimens deep black,) edged 

 with yellowish white; the greater quills are brown; 

 the vent and upper tail coverts black. The tail, 

 which consists of fourteen feathers, is of a hoary 

 brownish ash, edged with yellowish white ; the two 

 middle ones are sharp-pointed, darker and longer 

 than the rest. The legs and toes are of a dirty lead 

 colour, faintly tinged with green : the middle of the 

 webs and nails black. " The female is brown, the 

 middle of the feathers deepest : the fore part of the 

 neck and breast paler: scapulars dark brown, with 

 paler edges: wings and belly as in the male/' The 

 young of both sexes are grey, and continue in that 

 plain garb till the month of February, after which a 

 change takes place, and the plumage of the male 

 begins to assume its rich colourings, in which, it is 

 said, he continues till the end of July, and then 

 again the feathers become dark and grey, so that he 

 is hardly to be distinguished from the female.* 



* M. Baillon, from whom these remarks are taken, adds, that the 

 same changes happen to the Pintail, the Gadwall, and the Shoveler, 

 and that they are also all grey when young. 



