504 LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 



screened from view on all sides, and so canopied by the standing grass that the eggs 

 were not visible from above. There was a rim of soft down, from the mother's breast, 

 around the eggs, ^lartly covering those in the outer circle. On viewing the nest the 

 next day this down was found to have been drawn over all the eggs. Mr. Moore took 

 them and placed them under a hen ; and six days after they were hatched. This was 

 early in April. It would appear, therefore, that the statement that the male forsakes 

 his mate during incubation is not well founded ; for in this instance the male bird, 

 about the twenty-fourth day of incubation, still kept in the vicinity of the nest. It 

 is, however, the universal belief that he does not assist in rearing the young. 



Mr. Moore also informs me that in August, September, and the first part of Octo- 

 ber, parties of from five to twenty of this species leave the fresh ponds and fly across 

 the bay to sand-bars on the inner sides of the Keys, where they spend the night in the 

 pools or coves near the mangroves, and return at sunrise the next morning. Those 

 shot at this time were all males ; but in January, February, and INIarch mated birds, 

 flying in pairs, sjiend their nights in the same places. In one instance Mr. Moore 

 came suddenly on a flock of three old birds and nine young; the latter were only a 

 few days old. Two of the old birds flew off; but the mother remained, and led the 

 Ducklings from the shallow pond over a dry and bare bed into a tangled mass of 

 palniettoes and grass. 



Mr. Moore has no doubt that this Duck would be a much more common bird in 

 Florida but for the sweeping fires that are set to burn off this coarse growth of grass, 

 to allow a fresher growth to spring up for the cattle. In these fires a great many of 

 the birds must be destroyed. Mr. Moore has not succeeded in inducing this Duck to 

 breed in confinement, although in 1874 he was in possession of nine of this species, 

 in their third summer, all of which had been hatched out under a hen. 



Mr. Auduljon mentions finding the nest of a Dusky Duck, probably this species, 

 on the 30th of April, 1837, on Galveston Island, Texas, formed of grass and feathers, 

 and coutaiuing eight eggs. These wei-e surrounded and partially covered with down. 

 On the same island others were seen that evidently had nests. Mr. Audubon was 

 informed tliat those which breed in Texas are resident tliere throughout the year. In 

 South Carolina he was informed by the Eev. Dr. Bachman that this species, once rare, 

 was becoming more and more abundant, attracted probably by the rice-fields ; and 

 farther inland it was even more plentiful. Hybrids between this and the Domestic 

 Duck had been reared, and their eggs were joroductive, the offspring being larger 

 than either parent. The young of this species, in the opinion of Mr. Audubon, afford 

 delicious eating, and are said to be far superior to the more celebrated Canvas-back. 



An egg of the Florida Dusky Duck, collected by ]Mr. ]\Iaynard, measures 2.33 inches 

 in length by 1.70 in breadth. It has a general resemblance to the eggs of the common 

 A. ohscura, but is of a lighter shade of greenish white. 



Genus CHAULELASMUS, Gray. 



Chautelasmus, Gray, 1838 (type, Anas strcpera, Linn.). 



Clmuliodus, Swains. F. B. A. II. 1831, 440 (type, Anas strcpera, Linn.). (Not of Bloch, 1801.) 



ChauUodes, Eyton, Mon. Anat. 1838, 43 (same type). (Not of Latreille, 1798.) 



But two species of this genus are known, the connnon and widely dittused G. strcperus, and the 

 more recently discovered C. Couesi, Streets, of Washington Island, in the South Pacific Ocean. 

 The latter is very similar to C. streperus. having the same form and essentially the same coloration, 

 but is much smaller, with several difterences in plumage. The sides are white, coarsely spotted 

 with grayish, instead of finely undulated with the same, as is the case with tlie adult male of 



