20 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DUCKS 



Most ornithologists would admit, I think, that the little Hawaiian Duck is nothing 

 more than a degenerate Mallard, the males having lost most of their gay coloring. 

 It has, however, kept certain male characters, and some specimens look a good deal 

 like a Mallard in summer, or eclipse, dress. 



We now come to a large category of ducks that do not assume full dress until more 

 than one year old. The Harlequin male does not attain maturity for fourteen 

 months, and the Eiders not until their fourth year. The curious Steamer Duck does 

 not reach maturity until at least over two years of age, and possibly not until 

 much later. Many of the Pochards and Scaups are not really in perfect feather until 

 eighteen or twenty months of age — and their first eclipse is somewhat different 

 from later ones. 



It may be worth while to make some general remarks on the sequence of moults in 

 ducks, because this subject will not be freely considered under the different species. 

 In the seventeenth century Willoughby and Ray offered their quaint theory of the 

 causes of moult in birds and perhaps, after all, we have not pushed the knowledge 

 of this subject so far that we can afford to laugh overmuch. They supposed "that 

 there is the same cause of the casting the feathers in birds, that there is of the falling 

 off of the hair in men and other animals upon recovery from a fever or other disease, 

 or upon refection after long abstinence. For in cock-birds the heat and turgency of 

 lust, is, as it were, a kind of fever, and so in the spring time their bodies being ex- 

 hausted by the frequent use of venery, they become lean; but in the hens the time of 

 sitting and bringing up their young answers to a disease or long abstinence, for at 

 that time they moderate themselves by hunger and continual labor, etc., etc." 



The first true feathers appear on the scapulars and tail, the last parts to retain 

 down being the head and neck and under side. The first plumage, usually called the 

 juvenile plumage, is attained at the age of eight or ten weeks, and resembles in a 

 marked degree that of the adult female, although it may be distinguished by various 

 minor differences. The sexes of young ducks can usually be separated when they 

 have reached this stage (first or juvenile plumage), but they resemble each other 

 closely. The first tail-feathers are blunt at the tips. 



First let us follow the male of what we may call a typical palearctic duck (Mal- 

 lard, Teal, Widgeon, and others). During the first winter the male may or may not 

 attain full adult plumage; at any rate, there is a nearly complete moult of body 

 feathers, usually the whole tail (sometimes only the central feathers), between Sep- 

 tember and April. Note here that the juvenile flight-feathers are always retained, 

 and rather frequently the feathers of the back and rump and, perhaps, some wing- 

 coverts. In some species feathers of the lower breast and abdomen are not renewed 

 during the first winter. 



The first eclipse plumage, which is assumed in June or July, may or may not re- 

 semble the adult eclipse, but in the typical cases it is the same, and the year-old 



