254 



abdomen there is a basal and another, subterminal spot of brown ; and the long overlapping tibials are 

 blackish brown, with a broad irregular V-shaped mark, and margined with fulvous ; quills and wing- 

 coverts as in the male, but with a duller speculum, and a narrower border of white ; scapulars velvet- 

 brown, glossed with green, margined and tipped with fulvous, the shorter ones with a central lctter-V 

 mark of the same ; under surface of wings and axillary plumes pure white, spotted with dusky brown 

 towards the carpal flexure; tail and its upper coverts velvet-brown, with paler margins. Irides reddish 

 brown, sometimes tinged with yellow; bill dark brown; feet pale brown. Length 18"5 inches; extent 

 of wings 29; wing, from flexure 9; tail 4; bill, from base to extremity of upper mandible 2 - 25, width 

 at the base "5, greatest anterior expansion 1, length along the edge of lower mandible 2 - 5 ; tarsus 1*25 ; 

 middle toe and claw 2. 



Young male. Head and neck as in the adult female, except that the punctations on the sides are more 

 conspicuous, owing to the ground-colour being lighter; plumage of the upper parts as in the adult 

 female ; but the light margins are narrower, the feathers more strongly glossed with velvet-green, and 

 the scapulars marked with a central longitudinal streak of dull brown ; lower sides of the neck and the 

 whole of the breast blackish brown, each feather marked near the centre in a crescent form, and broadly 

 margined with pale ochre-brown; underparts dark chestnut-brown, spotted and blotched with black, 

 and marked on the sides with irregular lunate spots of blackish brown ; long feathers overlapping the 

 thighs dusky brown, crossed by broad undulating bands of fulvous ; spot on each side of the rump white, 

 with numerous crescents and freckles of brown ; under tail-coverts pale brown, varied with darker, and 

 vermiculated with black. Bill dark brown ; feet pale brown. 



Young female. Punctation on the sides of the head and neck more distinct than in the adult; the whole of 

 the upper surface blackish brown, only faintly glossed with green, the scapulars and upper tail-coverts 

 narrowly margined with paler brown ; breast, sides of the body, and the whole of the abdomen dull 

 greyish brown, darker on the former, each feather margined with fulvous brown ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillary plumes pure white ; the long feathers overlapping the thighs dark brown, with paler edges, 

 but without any markings ; upper wing-coverts dull purplish grey ; the secondaries merely glossed with 

 green, and their coverts tipped with white. 



The first recorded specimens of this beautiful Duck were forwarded to Europe by Mr. Walter 

 Mantell in 1856 ; and Mr. Gould was thus enabled to give a figure and description of the adult 

 male in the Supplement to his 'Birds of Australia;' but the female was then unknown, and no 

 account of the species in the different conditions of plumage has hitherto appeared. Having 

 myself enjoyed favourable opportunities for studying the bird in its native haunts, and having 

 obtained numerous specimens from various parts of the country, I am enabled to give a very 

 complete descriptive history of it from youth to maturity. 



The species appears to come very near to, if it is not in reality identical with, Spatula 

 rhyuchotis, of the Australian continent ; but Mr. Gould assures me that, although probably a 

 hundred examples of the latter have passed through his hands, he has never seen one with so 

 much white on the sides of the neck and breast as the New-Zealand bird exhibits, and he 

 has no doubt whatever about their being specifically distinct. Whether the two species present 

 other differences of plumage in their earlier states cannot at present be determined, inasmuch 



