266 ANAS. 



Our two Wild Ducks are very happy on the tank in the garden, and they have 

 now been joined hy a pair of Dabchicks. The mallard has lost his green head 

 and his tail-curls, and is coloured as the female, only with his breast and back 

 more rufous, his bill being now a bright dead yellow" {Kandahar in 1879, p. 249). 

 — Female : Brown, edged lighter. Head and neck yellowish, unspotted. Below 

 buff, with brown centres. Tail brown, edged buff. The original source from 

 which tame ducks are derived. Temperate regions of Northern Hemisphere, 

 migrating south in winter. Breeds in the Himalayas and Kashmir. Unknown 

 in S. India, Ceylon, Pegu, and Tenasserim. Six to twelve eggs (2-23 x 1-6), 

 greenish white. 



The Wild Ducks [A. hoscas) afford an example of the changes of plumage in 

 the different sexes, ages, and seasons of the year which may take place in certain 

 species of birds. 



At first the young are clothed with down, alike in colour. The down is soon 

 replaced by true feathers. In this stage also the two sexes are almost exactly 

 alike, both closely resembling the adult female. 



The females, from the time they acquire their complete covering of feathers, 

 remain for the rest of their lives practically alike, undergoing no change with the 

 different seasons. Their dress is highly protective, being veiy inconspicuous as 

 long as the birds remain among the reeds and sedges which grow in the places 

 they usually frequent and where they make their nests. 



The males for a considerable part of the year put on a very handsome and 

 conspicuous dress, which attains its perfection shortly before the pairing season 

 begins, or about mid-winter. By the time the young are hatched a change begins 

 to take place, the brilliant plumage disappears, and the bird "goes into an eclipse,"' 

 as Waterton described it. It loses all the characteristic appearance of the male,, 

 even the four curling central tail-feathers, and assumes a dress so closely re- 

 sembling that of the female that at a little distance it is impossible to distinguish 

 the sexes. While in this condition the moult of the large wing-feathers takes 

 place, the bird being for a time unable to fly. After remaining in this garb 

 about three months it rapidly acquires the winter dress, which is nearly complete 

 by the beginning of October, although the brilliant glossy green of the head and 

 the rich dark maroon of the breast are not yet fully developed, the feathers of 

 the latter being bordered by a light edge which they afterwards lose. 



Precisely similar changes take place in many other species of Duck, though 

 not in all. In the Sheldrake (T. cornuta), for example, the males and females, 

 are both conspicuously coloured, and change but little with the seasons. (¥.H.M. 

 J. 958. B. 1592.) See illustration, p. 267. 



Also A. wyvilliana. 18". Like A. hoscas, but speculiun is greenish blue, and under tail- 

 coverts black, mixed with chestnut. Sandwich Islands. 



A. laysanensis. 17". Legs orange. Bill blackish. General plumage rufescent. Irregular- 

 white ring round the eye. Speculum purple, green, and white. Laysan Islands. 



Central tail-feathers not curled up. 



A. melleri. 21". Legs flesh colour. Bill black. Feathers brown, margined red. Speculum, 

 black, glossy green, and black, Madagascar. 



A. dbscura. 21". Legs orange. Bill yellowish. Feathers brownish black, edged pale 

 fulvous. Speculum glossy violet, surrounded by black. E.N. America and Bermudas. 



A.fulvigula. Similar to .4. oJscMra, but much paler. Speculum bluish green. Florida. 



A. maculosa. Similar to A. fulmgula, but cheeks are streaked with brown. Speculum, 

 purple. Texas and Kansas, 



