472 ZOOLOGY— BIRDS. 



range of shot-gun pursued their way to their feeding grounds. These they 

 find either in the grassy benches that skirt the mountains, or the stubble 

 fields, which at this season prove attractive resorts. 



BRANTA BERNICLA (Linn.), var. NIGRICANS, Lawr. 

 Black Brant. 



.4?(.sy>- nigricans, Lawk., An. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., iv, 1846, 171. 



Bernicla nigricans, Bd., Birds N. A., 1858, 757. — door. & Suckl., P. R. R. Rep., 18G0, 



252. 

 Branta bernicla var. nigricans, Coues, Key N. A. Birds, 1S72, 284, rig. 184 b .— Yarrow 



& Henshaw, Rep. Orn. Specs., 1872, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 31. ■ 



Brant were seen at Rush Lake, Utah, supposed to be of this species. 



ANAS BOSCBAS, Linn. 



Mallard. 



Anas boschas, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, 17G6, 205.— Bd., Stans. Rep. Exp. Great Salt Lake, 

 1852, 322.— Woodh., Sitgreave's Exp. Znfii & Col. Riv., 1854, 103.— Newb., 

 P. R. R. Rep., vi, 1857, 102.— Bd., P. R. R. Rep., Beckwith's Route, x, 1857, 

 15.— Bd., Birds N. A., 1858, 744.— Id., U. S. & Mex. Bound. Surv., ii, pt, ii, 

 1859, Birds, 26 — HeeeM., P. R. R. Rep., x, pt. ii, 1859, 09.— Xantus, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila., 1859, 192, (Fort Tejon, Cal.).— Henry, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Pbila., 1859, 109 (New Mexico).— Coop. & Suckl., P. R. R. Rep., 

 xii, pt. ii, I860, 253.— Hayd., Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, xii, 18G2, 175.— Coues, 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1S0G, 98.— Allen, Bui. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 1872, 1S3.— Coues, Key N. A. Birds, 1872, 285.— Snow, Birds Kan., 1872, 15.— 

 Meekiam, U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., 1872, 703.— Yarrow & Henshaw, Rep. 

 Orn. Specs., 1872, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 31.— Henshaw, Rep. Orn. Specs., 

 1873, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 69, 94, 147.— Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., June, 1874, IS, 37.— Coues, Birds Northwest, 1874, 557. 



During fall and winter, perhaps none of the ducks are so numerous and 

 generally distributed in the West as the Mallard, while it is also found 

 throughout Utah and Colorado as a common summer resident of the lakes 

 and ponds. In the fall it appears to spend about as much of its time on 

 the land as in the water, and frequents the stubble grain fields in flocks of 

 greater or less number, gleaning there the scattered grain. It appears to 

 care little at any time for the open water of the lakes, but resorts preferably 

 to the little marshy pools of water surrounded by sedge and grass, Avhere 

 it wades as often as swims in and out amono- the roots where the water 



