114 XORTH AMERICAS BIRDS. 



Genus NOMONYX Bidgway. (Page 87, pi. XXVI., fig. 2.) 



Species. 



Adult male : Fore-part and top of head, black ; rest of head, with neck, dark 

 rusty cinnamon ; back and sides rusty, striped with black ; belly, etc., yellowish 

 rusty, the feathers occasionally showing dusky centres ; wings brown, with a con- 

 spicuous white speculum on greater coverts. Immature (?) male : Top of head, two 

 stripes on side of head, and general color of upper parts, dull black ; spaces between 

 head-stripes, also cheeks and chin, dull white; neck and chest rusty chestnut, 

 sometimes with a purplish tinge ; rest of lower parts dull ochraceous, the feathers 

 with concealed dusky central spots ; middle and greater wing-coverts, basal portion 

 of secondaries, and whole of axillars, white ; back and scapulars varied with bars 

 and borders of rusty. Adult female : Similar to the preceding, but black less intense 

 and more broken, the rusty paler (sometimes replaced by ochraceous) and spotted 

 with black; belly dull ochraceous white, and wing-speculum smaller. Length 

 about 12.00-14.50, wing about 5.50-5.75, tail 3.50-4.50, culmen 1.30-1.37. Sab. 

 Tropical America in general, including the West Indies ; accidental in the eastern 

 United States (Lake Ghamplain, Xew York, and Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin). 



125. N. dominicus (Linn). Masked Duck 



GWs CHEN Boik. (Page 87, pi. XXYIIL, figs. 1, 2.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Adult with whole head and at least part of the neck 

 white 1 (in two of the three species the plumage entirely white, except quills, which 

 are blackish) ; the bill dull purplish red (in life), with whitish nail, and feet pur- 

 plish red. Young with head and neck grayish, the rest of the plumage either 

 chiefly grayish brown or else striped with grayish on a whitish ground ; bill and 

 feet dusky. 



a 1 . Bill very robust, the commissure widely gaping, and enclosing a broad blackish 



space, extending from the corner of the mouth nearly to the tip of the bill ; 



feathering at base of upper mandible, along each side, having a very convex 



outline ; culmen 1.95 or more. 



b\ Plumage chiefly grayish brown, the rump (usually) and wing-coverts bluish 



gray. 



Adult : Head and part of neck, and sometimes rump and part of lower 



surface, white ; greater wing-covertB and secondaries (including 



tertials) edged with white. Young : Similar to adult, but head and 



neck uniform deep grayish brown, only the chin being white. 



Length 26.50-30.00, wing 15.00-17.00, culmen 2.10-2.30, tarsus 3.00- 



i In some specimens the head more or less stained with bright rusty, or orange-rufous, from contact with 

 ferruginous mutter. 



