236 THE MALLARD. 



rather long and slender; body full, depressed. Feet short, stout, placed a 

 little behind the centre of the body; tibia bare a little above the joint; tarsus 

 short, somewhat compressed, anteriorly with small scutella, laterally and 

 behind with angular scales; hind toe extremely small, with a very narrow 

 membrane; third toe longest, fourth a little shorter, but longer than second; 

 all covered with numerous oblique scutella; anterior connected by reticulated 

 membranes. Claws small, arched, compressed, rather acute. Plumage dense, 

 soft. Wings of moderate length, acute; second quill longest, first very little 

 shorter; inner secondaries elongated and tapering; tail short, much rounded, 

 of sixteen feathers. (Esophagus rather narrow, dilated on the lower part of 

 the neck; stomach an extremely muscular, transversely elliptical gizzard; 

 intestine long and rather wide; coeca long. Trachea of the males with a 

 transverse bony unsymmetrical dilatation at the inferior larynx. 



THE MALLARD. 



"^Anas Boschas, Linn. 



PLATE CCCLXXXV.— Males and Females. 



Although it is commonly believed that the Mallard is found abundantly 

 everywhere in the United States, I have received sufficient proof to the 

 contrary. If authors had acknowledged that they state so on report, or had 

 said that in the tame state the bird is common, I should not have blamed 

 them. According to my observation, and I may be allowed to say that I 

 have had good opportunities, this valuable species is extremely rare in the 

 wild state in the neighbourhood of Boston in Massachusetts; and in this 

 assertion, I am supported by my talented and amiable friend Mr. Nuttall, 

 who resided there for many years. Farther eastward, this bird is so rare 

 that it is scarcely known, and not one was seen by myself or my party 

 beyond Portland in Maine. On the western coast of Labrador none of the 

 inhabitants that we conversed with had ever seen the Mallard, and in New- 

 foundland the people were equally unacquainted with it, the species being 

 in those countries replaced by the Black Duck, Jlnas fusca. From New 

 York southward, the Mallards become more plentiful, and numbers of them 



