WATER BIRDS. 77 
can be erected so as to form a complete semicircle making the most conspicious crest worn 
by any of our ducks. The back is mainly black, the tertiaries and scapulars sharply 
streaked with pure white. The under parts from lower neck to tail are pure white; the 
sides and flanks finely barred with black or dark brown on a pale rufous ground. Just in 
front of the shoulders the black of the back extends downward on the sides of the upper 
breast forming two conspicuous black horns or points, which however, do not meet in front. 
These points are bordered in front and behind by a few narrow black and white bars. The 
wings are dusky; the speculum white. The adult female has the black of the head and 
neck replaced by reddish-brown of varying depth, with the upper throat white, and with 
only a small crest which is usually distinctly cinnamon. The lower breast and belly are 
white; the sides ashy, and the back brownish-black. The fully grown young resemble the 
female, but have no crest. 
Total length of adult, 17 to 19 inches; wing, 7.50 to 7.90; culmen, 1.50. 
33. Mallard. Anas platyrhynchos Linn. (132) 
Synonyms: Common Wild Duck; Green-head (male); Gray Duck and Gray Mallard 
(female).—Anas boschas, Linn., 1766, and of most authors. 
Figures 12 and 18. 
In full plumage known at once by its resemblance to the ordinary barn- 
yard duck which is simply the domesticated form of the wild bird. The 
blue-green or purple speculum, bordered along both edges by black and 
white, marks the bird in any plumage. 
Distribution.—Northern parts of Northern Hemisphere; in America 
south to Panama and Cuba, breeding southward to southern United 
States; less common in the east. 
This duck is too well known to need any extended‘ description, being 
probably the most abundant species of duck found in this state. It is 
one of the best table birds ; 
among the water fowl, and 
is hunted therefore with 
appropriate ardor. 
The Mallard reaches 
southern Michigan in 
spring from the first to 
the 15th of March, the 
average date being not 
far from the 10th, and 
it passes northward as rap- 
idly as the lakes and | 
streams open, affording a 
safe food supply. In 
autumn the southward 
movement begins certainly 
as early as September 1, 
although the period of 
greatest abundance is 
nearer October 1, and the Fig. 12. Mallard. arouers 
i i i ird, Brewer & Ridgway’s Water Birds of Nor 
birds often linger at favor Brom Béitd, Brewer & Hideway ee Co.) 
able places until early No- ; 
vember, in fact until the first ice forms. We have no winter records 
of this species, but since it sometimes winters in numbers in north- 
ern Ohio, Indiana, and even in southern Wisconsin it is not improbable 
that it sometimes does so in southern: Michigan. _— . 
This is a typical marsh or shallow water duck, getting its food by ‘‘dab- 
bling” and wading, or freauentlvy by walking about on the shore. It 
