116 ARRIGONI DEGLl ODDI. 



N°2o6/ofthe late Gount Ninni's Collection. — Adult 

 female. — Isabelline variety. 



Eyebrow, sides of head and neck anJ underparts 

 whitish-butT with gradations of a lighter colour on lower 

 abdomen ; head, mesial nuchal band, space between base 

 of bill and eye of almost normal colour, only a little 

 lighter ; back, rump and iipper tail-coverts of a normal 

 colour, but thebrownish buffspotsare lighter and bright; 

 wings also normal about half their lenght. 



There is no note on the ticket of the date and locality 

 of the capture ofthis beautiful bird, but there is no doubt 

 that it was killed in the Estuary by the punt-gunner and 

 stuffer John Minotto of Venice in the Winter 1890. 



This variety seems to be distinguished from the usual 

 anomalies of colour and would appear with characters so 

 well determined, that it can almost be defined with a spe- 

 cific key ; analogous specimens are preserved in the 

 beautiful Civic Museum of Pavia and were caught in that 

 province(l), these and the above described are the only 

 ones I know of . 



Then concluding, in the Venetian territory were found 

 the following isabelline Varietes of female Ducks : 



a) Specimens reddish with wings and tail white, spe- 

 culum paler; all these colours more orless vivid or faded. 



It is certainly a fact that these are simple isabelline 

 varieties, which appear with lighter or darker tints, with 

 more or less regulär design and not with symmetrical and 

 almost constant characters. 



b) Specimens reddish with the wings, tail and upper- 

 parts partly (back, rump and upper tail-coverts) of apearl- 

 grey tint with more or less developed buffish edges. 



These varieties seem to present a more regulär design, 

 always keeping the account that these are varietes and 

 not species with equal and constant characters, 



(I) They have beeii described by Prof. Balsamo-Crivelli, in the paper 

 II Patriotta, july 18'i> 1874; by Prof. C. Parona in the Atli Soc. ital. Sc. 

 7iat., vol. XIX, 187G, p. 462-()7 and by Prof. Pavesi, ibid., vol. XXXII, 

 1889, p. 313. 



