The Ring-necked Duck 



water, and their innocent gambols repay a hundredfold the self-denial 

 practiced by Oakland's citizens. On Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park, 

 Scaups crowd up with Mud-hens to snatch tidbits from the proffered 

 hand ; and instances are cited where Lesser Scaups, presumably wing- 

 tipped birds, unable to perform the northern migrations, have remained 

 to breed, both on Lake Merced and on Stow Lake. These have brought 

 off chicks a thousand miles south of any other known breeding station, but 

 whether they have succeeded in bringing their young to maturity under 

 such trying circumstances, we do not know. 



No. 360 



Ring-necked Duck 



A. O. U. No. 150. Marila collaris (Donovan). 



Description. — Adult male: Head and neck sooty and lustrous black, with 

 slight greenish and strong violet-purple iridescence; a short dense occipital crest; 

 extreme chin white; a broad chestnut collar not clearly defined; fore-neck, breast, 

 and upperparts, rich, deep, brownish black, glossed with purplish on the breast, with 

 green on the longer scapulars and tertiaries, minutely dotted with white on the scap- 

 ulars; lower breast and belly white, becoming purplish on crissum and flanks; a 

 transverse bar of white on sides of breast continuous with underparts; sides 

 minutely vermiculated dusky and white (as many as a hundred bars to the inch); 

 wing-coverts grayish brown, becoming dull glossy green on posterior portion; speculum 

 ashy gray tipped with brownish dusky, and bordered interiorly with bluish gray of 

 outer tertials; axillars and lining of wings white. Bill black, narrowly pale bluish at 

 base, and crossed by band of same color near tip; feet dull blue with dusky webs; iris 

 yellow. Adult female: Black of male replaced by brown, — dark umber brown on 

 crown and upperparts, warm yellowish brown on breast and sides, paling on sides of 

 head and neck to white on throat and whitish about base of bill; belly less clearly or 

 extensively white; wing much as in male. Length 406.4-457.2 (16.00-18.00); av. of six 

 males: wing 191. 5 (7.54); tail 57.4 (2.26); bill 47.8 (1.88); tarsus 35.3 (1.39). Females 

 somewhat smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Between Mallard and Teal size; short occipital crest? 

 chestnut collar; white chin; transverse white bar on breast and wavy-barred sides of 

 male serve to distinguish this bird from the other "Blackheads," which it superficially 

 resembles. Peculiar yellowish brown of sides distinctive for female. 



Nesting. — Nest: On the ground near grassy marshes or in tussock surrounded 

 by water. Eggs: 6 to 12; olive-buff. Av. size 58 x 41 (2.28 x 1.61). Season: June. 



General Range. — North America. Breeds in the Pacific region from British 

 Columbia to northern California; and in the interior from northern Alberta and northern 

 Manitoba to the Dakotas, northern Iowa, and southern Wisconsin. Winters abun- 

 dantly on the Gulf Coast, and from British Columbia, southern Illinois and New 

 Jersey, south to Porto Rico and Guatemala. 



Distribution in California. — Rare winter resident, formerly much more 

 common. Grinnell has listed fifteen records of occurrence, and I have recorded it 



l8l2 



