512 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS - ANSERES. 



Femah'. 



plumbeous-bluu, the uiigui, base, and strip aloni^ culmeii, black ; iris brown ; feet dusky. Adult 

 male in suvimer: " H(.'ad, neck, and under parts generally as iii the adult lenmle, except that the 

 abiloinen is duller in color and less marked ; liack iluU dark brown, each feather luiving one or two 

 irregular dirty-white bars, and some being irregularly verniiculated with that color ; rump washed 

 with gray ; tail similar in color to tliat of the bird last described [i.e. adult male in winter], but the 

 two central feathei-s are but slightly elongated ; wings also as in the last-descriiied stage of jilu- 

 mage, but the elongated secondaries and scapulars are shorter and blunter, and in color dark gray, 



black along the centre, some of the latter being 

 marked like the back ; flanks grayish brown, every 

 feather having broad yellowish-wliite bars ; under 

 tail-coverts as in tlie female" (Shari'E & Dres- 

 ser). Adult female: Above, idumbeous-dusky, 

 N'ariegated transversely with yellowish white or 

 pale ochraceous ; these markings sometimes irreg- 

 ularly bar-like, but oftener of U-shaped form, one 

 on the edge, and one in tlie middle portion of each 

 feather. Wing much as in the male, but metallic 

 color of the speculum duller, the ochraceous bar 

 anterior to it paler, and the white terminal bar 

 tinged with buff ; wing-coverts narrowly tipped 

 with whitish. Upper tail-coverts broadly edged 

 with whitisli, and more or less marked with 

 ii'regular — usually V-shaped — lines of the same. 

 Tail-feathei-s dusky, edged with whitish, and with 

 more or less disthict indications of distant bars 

 of the same. Head and neck dingy whitish, tinged with brown on the superior surface, which is 

 heavily streaked with blackish, the other portions more finely and thinly streaked, the tliroat ijeing 

 nearly immaculate. Rest of the lower ])arts dingy white, tlie feathers more grayish beneath the 

 surface ; crissum and Hanks streaked with dusky, but abdomen, etc., usually immaculate. Yuung 

 vudc : Similar to the i'emale, but markings on U])per ])arts more bar-like, and lower parts some- 

 times nearly wholly streaked. Yaioiif femde (No. r)4()33, Kadiak, Alaska, Aug. 1, 18(!8 ; F. 

 Bischoef) : Speculum dilute raw-umber, marbled toward base of feathers with dusky. All the 

 feathers of the ujiper parts conspicuously and broadly bordered with bully white ; lower parts 

 everywhere densely streaked with dusky. Downy young: Above, grayish raw-umber, with a 

 white stripe along each side of the back, a white space on the wing, and a white superciliary stripe. 

 Beneath, grayish white, with a very faint yellowish tinge ; an umber-brown stripe behind the eye, 

 and an indistinct s])ace of the same over the ears. 



Male, total length, about :2().(M)-28.(tO inches ; extent, 3(5.00; wing, 10.25-11.10 ; tail, 7.-25-y.5() ; 

 culmen, 1.85-i'.15 ; width of bill, .TO-.SO ; tarsus. 1.55-1.85; middle toe, 1.70-2.10. Female, 

 wing, !».()0-10.10 ; tail. 4.50-,").00 ; culmen, 1.80-2.10; width of bill, .Co-.To ; tarsus, l.t)5 ; 

 middle toe, 1.80. 



The range of individual variation of the colors in this species is very slight, consisting of differ- 

 ences that are scarcely worthy of mention. European specimens dill'er, however, very appreciably 

 from North American ones in narrower speculum, but not in other respects. Two males measure 

 as follows : Wing, 10.30-1 l.(X1 inches ; tail (elongated miildle feathers), 8.50 ; culmen, 1.85-1.95 ; 

 width of bill, .70-75 ; tarsus, l.-40-l.(iO ; middle toe, 1.85-1. !)().' 



Tlu' I'in-tail l)m-k is oosniui)()litan. and t'njoy.s a distribution exceeded in extent by 

 few birds of any kind. In Nortli America it is t'i)und from Greenland and the Arc- 

 tic coast almost to the Istlnnus of I'anania. Less abundant, Avlicrevev found, than 

 the Mallard, its distribution appears to be quite as extensive. In the Old World it 

 is found throughout Euro])e, in .Vsia as far south as Ceylon, in Japan, in ditt'erent 

 portions of China, ami in Northern .\f'rica. 



* Shiirpu & Dresser (" History of the Birds of Europe," Part XIX. ) give tlie diniensions of the Europenn 

 Pin-tail oh follows : "Total length, 2 I'tet ; culmen, 2.2 inches ; wing, 11.2 ; tail, 7..') ; tarsus, 1.6." 



