NATATORES-ANATIDiE-ANAS. 
347 
THE MALLARD. 
Anas boschas. 
PLATE CVIII. FIG. 240. 
Anas boschas, Lin. p. 205. Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 563. Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 8, p. 112, pi. 60, fig. 7. 
Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 383, 
Boschas domestica. Richardson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 412. Adddbon, Birds of Am. Vol. 6, p. 236, pi. 385. 
Ndttall, Man. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 378. 
Characteristics. Mirror violet, bounded by black and white ; rump blackish. Male: head 
and neck green ; a white collar; four middle tail-coverts recurved. 
Female and young, wholly brownish, varied with yellowish and blackish. 
Length, 23 - 0. 
Description. Bill subequal with the head, flattened, and somewhat dilated towards the 
end. Tibia bare a short distance from the joint. Tail rounded, of sixteen feathers. 
Color. Male: Bill yellowish : feet orange red. Head and neck deep green, with a white 
ring beneath; neck and breast dark chesnut; upper part of back, wing-coverts and quills 
ash-brown of different shades ; rump and upper tail-coverts blackish green ; some of the outer 
scapulars chesnut, with darker transverse lines. Mirror with purple and green reflections. 
Sides of the rump, and interior of the wings, white. Female, reddish brown, spotted with 
dusky ; beneath yellowish grey, obscurely spotted with brownish black. 
Length, 24 - 0-25'0. 
This is the well known original on both continents of our common domestic Duck, of which 
we have now so many varieties. Messrs. Cooper and Nuttall have noticed a large wild 
variety ? measuring 30 inches. In these the primaries are white, and the tail-feathers grey. 
The Mallard is common about most of the lakes in the interior of the State, and also on 
the seacoast. It leaves us in the autumn for the South, and has been observed from Mexico 
to the 68th parallel. 
(EXTRA-LIMIT AL.) 
A. breioeri. (Acd. B. of Am. Vol. 6, p.252, pi. 387.) Mirror green. Head and neck green; pale 
yellowish on the sides; rump and upper and under tail-coverts black: a .light yellowish collar 
round the neck. General hue dusky, finely waved with grey. Length, 23 *0. Louisiana. 
A. moschala, Lin. Glossy black: a papillary naked red skin surrounding the eyes, on the cheeks, 
and base of the bill. Length, 25 - 0. Brazil. A few observed on the coast of the Southern States. 
Domesticated. 
44 
