36 Birds of Colorado 
b? Wing-coverts sky blue (Querquedula). 
a’ A white patch on the sides of the face. 
Q. discors, g p. 43, 
b* No white on head. 
a® Below clear cinnamon. Q. cyanoptera, d p. 44. 
b® Below dusky and dark buff. Q. cyanoptera, 2 p. 44. 
ce Below dusky and grey. Q. discors, 2 p. 43. 
c. Tail-feathers wide and rounded ; head distinctly crested (Az). 
A. sponsa, p. 48 
Genus ANAS. 
Bill about as long as the head or longer, exceeding the tarsus, 
broad and with the sides more or less parallel, nail narrow, less 
than one-third as wide as the end of the bill; nostrils high up in 
the basal half of the bill; tail rounded, less than half the wing, of 
16 to 18 pointed feathers; speculum violet, framed in black and 
white. 
Three species in the United States. 
Mallard. Anas platyrhynchos. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 132—Colorado Records—Henshaw 75, p. 472 
(Anas boschas); Drew 81, p. 142; 85, p. 18; Allen & Brewster 83, 
p. 198; Beckham 85, p. 144; Morrison 88, p. 140; 89, p. 148; Kellogg 
90, p. 90 ; McGregor 97, p. 38; Cooke 97, pp. 53, 194; 06 p. 22; Dille 
03, p. 74; Henderson 03, p. 234; 09, p. 225; Rockwell 08, p. 157; 
Warren 09, p. 13; 10, p. 29. 
Description. Male in breeding dress—Whole head and upper-neck 
glossy green, followed by a white ring; back dark greyish-brown 
becoming black on the rump; the longer upper tail-coverts recurved ; 
tail-feathers mostly whitish ; breast rich chestnut, belly greyish-white 
finely mottled with dusky ; under tail-coverts black ; speculum rich 
purple bordered in front and behind by narrow bands of black and 
white ; iris brown, bill greenish-yellow, feet orange-red. Length 230; 
wing 11:0; tail 4; culmen 2°25; tarsus 1°75. 
After the breeding season, in early summer, the male moults into 
a plumage closely resembling the female, and after the body-moult 
is complete, loses its quills and is unable to fly. The second or breeding 
plumage is again assumed in the fall. 
The female has the top of the head streaked with fuscous and buffy, 
the rest of the plumage mottled, scolloped and streaked with dusky 
and grey, more greyish below ; the chin is plain buffy, and the under- 
surface of the wing white; speculum as in the breeding male; bill 
dusky, blotched with orange ; dimensions smaller than the male—wing 
about 10°50. 
