Duck-shooting 79 



on Long Island occasionally occurring among 

 flocks of black duck. In Connecticut it is found 

 regularly, but it is far from common. Several 

 instances of its occurrence in the last few years 

 have been observed by the writer. Rarely they 

 have been killed offshore on Long Island Sound. 

 From time immemorial the mallard, of all the wild 

 ducks, has been most readily domesticated, prob- 

 ably because of its general distribution in all 

 countries and climates, and has been known to 

 live twenty-two years in captivity. 



BLACK DUCK 

 (Anas obscura) 



Adult male — Top of head, black, narrowly edged with buff, remainder 

 of head and neck, buff, streaked with brown ; throat and chin, im- 

 maculate buff; rest of plumage, dusky, paler beneath ; all the 

 feathers, except those on lower back and rump, edged with light 

 brown ; speculum, metallic blue, sometimes green, edged with 

 black ; lower wing-coverts, white ; bill, yellowish green or olive ; 

 nail, black ; legs and feet, olivaceous brown ; webs, dusky ; iris, 

 brown. 



Measurements — Length, 22 inches; wing, 10.50 inches; culmen, 

 2.05 inches; tarsus, 1.60 inches. 



Adult female — Resembles male, but is usually smaller and less 

 richly colored. 



Young — Similar to adult, with bill more of a greenish hue and 

 streaked with dusky. 



Downy young — Above olive-brown, relieved by six faint markings of 

 buff, one pair on the posterior border of each wing, one on each 

 side of back behind wings, one on each side of rump ; top of head 

 and back of neck, brown like the back ; under parts, light buff. 



Eggs — Six to twelve in number; pale buff to pale greenish buff; 

 measure 2.30 by 1.70 inches. 



