ASARCORNIS yCUTULATA. 3;^. 



tail-coverts olive-brown, glossed with metallic-blue and green ; scapularies olive- 

 brown ; smaller upper wing-coverts white, the median ones a so^t blue-grey, 

 broadly tipped with black, which is highly glossed in old males ; qidlls olive- 

 brown, the secondaries Mith the outer webs bluish-grey forming a speculum ; 

 the first inner secondary or tertiary ^^•hite on the outer web, and the quill next 

 it with a large white patch on the same web ; under wiug-coverts and axillaries 

 white, the former Avith a few brown feathers mixed; tail blackish, glossed with 

 green in old males. 



The bill varies from lemon-yellow to deep orange, the base and tip black, and 

 with black mottlings everywhere, generally least numerous about the centre of 

 the bill. Gonys paler, as a rule, than the rest of the bill. During the breeding- 

 season the base of the maxilla becomes considerably swollen, thouo-h never 

 becoming an actual comb, and the orange colour deepens to deep orange-red or 

 light red. The legs and feet vary like the bill from lemon-yellow to a dull 

 orange; the joints, toes, and webs are almost invariably mottled with dull 

 greenish, and patches of the same colour are to be found on the tarsus itself. 

 The toes are always dark. Irides brown and blood-red in old birds. 



Weight 7| to 9| lbs. when in good condition. An old male in captivity, and 

 verj' fat, weighed 9| lbs. ; but wild birds seldom weigh more than 84 lbs. 



In old males all the spots on the black on the upper parts are glossed with 

 green, and the bird in life looks a brilliant metallic-green when in the sun. The 

 gloss is green at the tip of each feather with a subtip of purple. The colour 

 of the lower parts varies very much, both in depth of colouring and in the 

 extent of the black mottling. In birds Avhen freshly moulted the colour is 

 usually a rich red-ochre-brown, and the black mottlings — confined more or 

 less to the tips of the feathers — rather extensive. In faded plumage, the 

 lower parts are a pale dull earth-brown, with but little tinge of red, and 

 practically no black at all. 



In the same way, by about July or August, the ^^"hole of the upper plumage 

 becomes bleached and the gloss almost or quite disappears. 



I think very old males become more white about the head and neck, more 

 especially round the eye. A very fine male which was in my possession for some 

 years became quite white for a space all round the eye and down the front of 

 the neck. 



Length 26 to 30 inches, wing 14-3 to 15-8, tail 5 to 7 (according to condition), 

 culmen 2-3 to 2-6, tarsus 2-2 to 2-4. 



The female does not differ conspicuously from the male, and birds in their 

 first plumage are hardly distinguishable ; on the whole, they are not so highiv 

 coloured or quite so highly glossed, and perhaps have less black on the lower 

 parts. The difference is, however, one only of comparison, and a duck in good 

 plumage is far more highly glossed and coloured than a male whose colours have 

 begun to fade. 



The colours of the soft parts are similar to those of the male, but paler and 

 duller : tl)e bill is usually of a pale dull lemon, very rarely with an orange tinge, 

 and never with this tinge at all strongly developed ; the black mottlings resemble 

 those on the bill of the drake, and vary to the same extent. In both sexes I 

 have seen bills the ground-colour of which was almost obliteratt-d by the spots, 



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