84 The Water-fowl Family 



This species is also known as the dusky duck, 

 and the black mallard. 



RED-LEGGED BLACK DUCK 

 {Anas obscura rubripes) 



Adult male — " Similar to A. obscura, but larger ; the feathers of the 

 pileum conspicuously edged with grayish or fulvous ; the dark 

 markings on the fore neck and the sides of the head, coarser, 

 blacker, and more sharply defined; the entire throat usually 

 streaked or spotted with blackish ; the tarsi and toes bright red ; 

 the bill yellow." 



Measurements — Length, 25 inches; wing, 11 inches; culmen, 2.15 

 inches; tarsus, 1.70 inches. 



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

 colored. 



Eggs — (Probably this form since taken at Rupert House, James 

 Bay) grayish white, tinged sometimes with green; measure, 2.45 

 by 1.77 inches. 



Habitat — Taken in the breeding season from James Bay, north to 

 northern Labrador and the west shore of Hudson Bay, and 

 probably Fort Anderson. Occurs in the migration on the 

 Atlantic Coast from Newfoundland to North Carolina, and to 

 Arkansas in the interior, wintering from Chignecto Bay, Nova 

 Scotia, south. Probably the birds recorded in winter from 

 western New York and Indiana, and possibly those in Ken- 

 tucky, as well as part of the migrants reported from Ohio, Illi- 

 nois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Missouri, 

 belong to this subspecies. 



This is the large black duck with red legs and 

 a yellow bill that frequents the bays of New Eng- 

 land and the Middle states in winter, coming to 

 the marshes at night for food and water, when 

 most of the small black ducks, with olive bills and 

 brownish legs, have gone farther south. The 



