ANATIN.E — THE DL'CKS — AXAS. 



603 



ht. When 

 before fall- 

 half a mile 

 ies seldom 

 nity to the 



(1 is highly 



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voice geu- 



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ighty-three 

 ic boatmen 

 'urrence in 

 lance from 



II innumer- 

 'ets Avith a 

 ild species 

 to market 

 T weather, 

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ey become 

 it in these 

 iiguishable 

 food, is .at 

 moonlight 

 le marshes 



das in the 

 being last 

 lis species 

 laiiy with 



e so abun- 

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 Audubon 

 met with 



powerful 

 lied from 

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t tinge of 



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and 2.50 



Anas fulvigula. 



THE FLOBUA DU8KT SUCK. 



Anas obscura, var. fulvigula, Kidow. Aiu. Nat. VIII. Fub. 1S71, 111 (St. John's U. Fla.). 



Alias obscuni, b. /ulvigula, Couks, liirds N. W. 1874, 5G1. 



Anas uhscurn fulvi(jula,Co{:ii.!i, Check List, 'Id vd. l&S'i, no. 709. 



Anasfulviijula, IUdgw. Proc. V , S. Nat. Mus. Vol. I. 1878, 251 ; Noiii. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 603. 



Hab. riorida (resident) ; Cuba ? 



Si'. Chau. Adult : Colors brownish black and ochraceous in nearly equal amount, the former 

 in the centre and the latter on the margin of tlie i'ealheis ; many of the featliers, especially tlie 

 scapulars and long feathers of the sides and flanks, with a second V-shaped mark of ochraceous 

 inside the marginal one. Entire throat an<l chin iuunaculate delicate ochraceous, or deep cream- 

 color. Speculum deep metallic green (rarely purplish), with a faint purple or blue tinge in some 

 lights, tipped broadly with velvety black ; last row of coverts brownish black, hnnully tippeil with 

 Velvety black and with a subterminal bar of deep ochraceous. Bill olive-yellow, the maigin and 

 base of the maxilla, esi)ecially below, black ; feet deep orange-red. Wing, l().(K)-l(t.50 inches; tail, 

 5.00; culnien, ^Oit-i.-io ; widtii of the bill, .90; tarsus, 1.70-1.80 ; middle toe, 1.90-2.00. 



This well-marked and ap|iarently very local species resembles A. obscura in general appearance, 

 particularly in the absence of white bars on the wing, but is very nuich lighter in color, the 

 entire chin and throat, as well as the greater part of the foreneck, being iuunaculate creamy 

 bull', whereas these parts in .1. nbscum are thickly streaked with dusky ; the speculum is more 

 often gieen than violet, the contrary being tin; case in ..1. alisfura. An apparently constant point 

 of distinction is to be found in the bill, the maxilla in A. obscura being olivaceous to the extreme 

 base, while in A. fulrigula the base is margined ly a narrow black line which widens out into a 

 triangular space near the rictus or beneath the feathering of the lores. 



Specimens vary chiefly in the color of the speculuu), which ranges from bright grass-green to 

 violet, the former being the usual color. As in the Dusky Duck, the under wing-coverts and 

 axillars are pure white. 



AVhat has been supjjosed to be only a smaller southern race of the common Dusky 

 Duck has for some tiiiu' been known to exist in Florida, It is now recognized as a 

 distinct and valid resident form, contiiied to southern regions exclusively. It is also 

 probable that the Dusky Ducks known to be resident in South Carolina may also be 

 referable to this species rather than to A. obscura. 



For the history of its peculiar habits I am indebted to !Mr. N. B. Moore ; its exist- 

 ence being first made known to him, in 18(51). by his killing several adults and meeting 

 with ii brood of nine young. An informant of Mr. Moore, who has lived sixty -six years 

 in I'lorida — and for twenty-five yjars on Sarasota l?ay — informed him that it was 

 unknown to him until within the last six years, when he killed a few on the Sarasota. 

 This Duck hatches in Florida from the first to the last of April, only one set of eggs 

 l)eing laid in a season, unless it fails in raising its first brood. The nest is always 

 placed on the ground, and the number of eggs is usually nine or ten. In one instance 

 a nest was discovered which was nea ly three hundred yards from water, and other 

 nests were met with still farther froin water. The one first referred to was cautiously 

 concealed in a thick mass of dead grass held upright by green palmettoes, about two 

 feet high. Jlr. ^loore once noticed a i>air of Ducks fly from a pond, near which he 

 was seated, and pass over the pine-barrens. One of them dro])ped among the grass ; 

 the other returned to the water. Suspecting that the birds might have a nest, he 

 visited the locality the next day, when the birds behaved as before. He soon made 

 his way to the spot where the female alighted, and found her in a somewhat open 

 space. On her return to the pond he soon discovered her nest. It was carefully 



