374 
ANAS DISCORS 
under wing-coverts bluish and brownish, with the central area and the axillars pure white. Tertials 
long, pointed and with a narrow central shaft-stripe of buff-color. 
Iris dark hazel. Bill bluish black. Legs and feet dull yellow to yellow-orange, w'ebs dusky, claws 
brownish black. 
Wing 184-194 mm.; bill 39-42; tarsus 42-44. 
Weight 12.5 to 15 ounces (0.35 to 0.42 kilograms); probably up to one pound (0.45 kilograms) 
when in extra-good condition. 
Adult Female; LTpper side dusky brown, the tips of the feathers edged with grayish and on the 
mantle irregular buff-colored sub-terminal crescentic bars. Top of head dark brownish, sides of head 
thickly streaked with browm, chin and throat immaculate buff. Lower parts white to buffy white 
more or less spotted and streaked, the spotting darker on the upper breast and on the under tail- 
coverts. Lesser wing-coverts as in the male but white band on greater coverts very narrow and 
irregular. Speculum dull greenish to bronze color. Tertials lacking a prominent central buff stripe 
but sometimes long, well developed and slightly iridescent. 
Iris hazel. Bill greenish dusky. Legs and feet of a duller yellow than those of male 
Wing 175-182 mm.; bill 38-40; tarsus 39-42. 
Weight 10.5 to 13 ounces (0.29 to 0.36 kilograms). 
Immature Females in early autumn plumage may be recognized by the uniform grayish mantle 
coloring, and the absence in that region of any buff barring, characteristic of the adult female. 
Streaks and spots on lower parts somewhat smaller and paler. 
Immature Males in early autumn can only be told from the young females with certainty by the 
much richer metallic green of the speculum and the more prominent white bar on the greater coverts. 
Male in Eclipse Plumage never becomes exactly like the female and does not entirely lose the 
crescentic white face-patch until late summer, although this becomes very obscure. Sides of head 
are dull colored and more streaked than in the female, and lower surface may have some indication 
of cross-barring; or it may be almost as in the female. Wing as in full-plumaged males. Full eclipse 
is assumed rather late in summer, and carried well into September and October, so that old males in 
early autumn are only to be distinguished with certainty from young ones by the barring of mantle, 
darker throat, absence of finely streaked abdomen and the longer, fresher-looking tail-feathers. 
Young in Down : Almost exactly like young of Mallard and probably not to be distinguished from 
it except by the smaller size and more delicate bill. At two weeks old the young begin to lose the 
bright sulphur-yellow color of the under parts, just as young Mallards do. 
Note: A subspecific race based upon the posterior extension of the white crescentic face-patch to 
the nuchal area W'as described by Kennard from Louisiana (Kennard, 1919). The type specimen was 
taken not later than April 2 and may not have been a southern breeding bird. Some spring specimens 
in the U.S. National Museum (nos. 87,613 and 190,967 from California and from Gainesville, Vir- 
ginia) show white streaks on side of pileum, or white nuchal patches so that I doubt if this is a con- 
stant character. Not all of Mr. Kennard’s specimens show the character strongly marked and some 
of them may have been migrants on their way north. Mr. S. C. Arthur (1920) shows that the white 
lines on the heads of male Teal are not always constant from plumage to plumage. Nevertheless the 
characters to which Mr. Kennard called attention seem to be commoner in the southern breeding 
group than in northern migrants and may indicate the beginning stage in the formation of a new 
race. 
