30 LAMELLIROSTIIAL SWIMMERS — ANSEKES. 



^thyia vallisneria. 



THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 



y/Hrts vallisneria, WiLS. Am. Orn. VIII. 1814, 103, pi. 7, fig. 3. 



Faligula vallisneria, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. XII. ii. 1824, 196. —Sw. & Kicil. F. B. A. II. 



1831, 451. — NuTT. Man. II. 1834, 430. — AUD. Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 1, pi. 301 ; Synop. 1839, 



285 ; B. Am. VI. 1843, 299, pi. 395. — Coues, Key, 1872, 290 ; Check List, 1873, no. 504 ; ed. 2, 



1882, no. 724 ; B. N. W. 1874, 575. 

 Aythya vallisneria, BoiE, Isis, 1826, 980. — Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 794; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, 



no. 592. 

 ^thyia vallisneria, ScL. & Salv. Norn. Neotr. 1873. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 617. 

 Arislonetta vallisneria, Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 793 (in text). 



Hab. Nearly the whole of North America, breeding from the Northwestern States northward 

 to Alaska ; south in winter to Guatemala. 



Sp. Char. Bill long and narrow, the end much depressed, with the nail scarcely decurved, 

 the base high, with the culmen gradually sloping and scarcely concave ; culmen nearly as long as 



yE. vallisneria. 



the middle toe (without claw), and about three times the greatest width of the maxilla. Adult 

 male : Head and neck chestnut-rufous, the former brownish dusky (sometimes ([uite blackish) 

 anteriorly and on top ; jugulum and anterior part of back, lower part of rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 and posterior part of crissum Idack ; back, scapulars, flanks, sides, and anal region white, finely 

 and delicately vermiculated with dusky ; breast and abdomen immaculate white. Wing-coverts 

 deep ash-gray, finely sprinkled with white ; secondaries (" speculum ") lighter, more bluish gray, 

 the upper feathers edged with black ; tertials like the longer scapulars ; primaries slate-color, 

 the inner quills more cinereous, except at ends, where dusky ; tail dusky. Bill entirely green- 

 ish black ; iris carmine-red ; feet bluish gray. Adult female : Head, neck, jugulum, and anterior 

 part of back raw-umber brown, a post- ocular space and the foreneck whitish, the chin, throat, and 

 clieeks tinged with fulvous ; wings as in the male, but coverts almost or quite uniform gray ; back, 

 scapulars, sides, and flai^ks with only the exposed ends of the feathers vermiculated with white 

 and dusky, the remainder being grayish brown. Bill greenish black ; iris brownish red ; feet 

 plumbeous. 



Total length, about 20.00 to 22.00 inches ; extent, 30.00 to 33.00 ; wing, 8.75-9.25 ; culmen, 

 2.10-2.50 ; greatest width of bill, .75-.80 ; tarsus, 1.70 ; middle toe, 2.60-2.65. 



