MALLARD. 171 



date together in flocks, until the young are able to migrate. This spe- 

 cies raises only one brood in the season, and I never found its nest with 

 eggs in autumn. The female covers her eggs before she leaves them to 

 go in search of food, and thus keeps them sufficiently warm until her re- 

 turn. 



Anas Boschas, Linn. Sj'st. Nat, vol. i. p. 205 — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 850 



Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 383. 



Mai-lard, Avas Boschas, JVils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 112. pi. 70. fig. 7. 



Xuttall, ]\Ianual, vol. ii. p. 378. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXXI. Fig. 1. 1. 



Bill about the length of the head, higher than broad at the base, 

 depressed and widened towards the end, rounded at the tip. Upper 

 mandible with the dorsal line sloping and a little concave, the ridge at 

 the base broad and flat, towards the end broadly convex, as are the sides, 

 the edges soft and rather obtuse, the marginal lamellae transverse, fifty on 

 each side ; the unguis oval, curved, abrupt at the end. Nasal groove el- 

 liptical, subbasal, filled by the soft membrane of the bill ; nostrils sub- 

 basal, placed near the ridge, longitudinal, elliptical, pervious. Lower 

 mandible slightly curved upwards, with the angle very long, narrow, and 

 rather pointed, the lamella? about sixty. 



Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed ; neck rather long and 

 slender ; body full, depressed. Feet short, stout, placed a little behind 

 the centre of the body ; legs bare a little above the joint ; tarsus short, a 

 little compressed, anteriorly with small scutella, laterally and behind with 

 reticulated angular scales. Hind toe extremely small, with a very nar- 

 row membrane ; third toe longest, fourth a little shorter, but longer than 

 second ; all the toes covered above with numerous oblique scutella ; the 

 three anterior connected by reticulated membranes, the outer with a thick 

 margin, the inner with the margin extended into a slightly lobed web. 

 Claws small, arclied, compressed, rather acute, that of the middle toe 

 much larger, with a dilated, thin, inner edge. 



Plumage dense, soft, and elastic ; of the head and neck short, blended, 

 and splendent ; of the other parts in general broad and rounded. Wings 

 of moderate length, acute ; primaries narrow and tapering, the second 

 longest, the first very little shorter ; secondaries broad, curved inwards 



