BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 9 



SUBFAMILY ANATIN^E. RIVEK DUCKS. 



GENUS AIX. BOIE. 

 144. Aix sponsa (LrxN.). 



Summer Duck; "Wood Duck; Acom I>uck. 



DESCRIPTION. (Plate 4.} 



Head and crest metallic-green to below the eyes ; the cheeks, and a stripe from 

 behind the eye, purplish : a narrow, short line from the upper angle of the bill along 

 the side of the crown and through the crest, another on the upper eyelid, a stripe 

 starting behind and below the eye, and running into the crest parallel with the one 

 first mentioned, the chin and upper part of the throat sending a well-defined branch 

 up towards the eye, and another towards the nape, snowy-white; lower neck and 

 jugulum, and sides of the base of tail, rich-purple; the jugulum with triangular 

 spots of white and a chestnut shade ; remaining under parts white, as is a crescent 

 in front oi the wing bordered behind by black ; sides yellow-gray, finely lined with 

 black ; the long feathers of the flanks broadly black at the end, with a sub-terminal 

 bar, and sometimes a tip of white ; back and neck above nearly uniform bronzed- 

 green and purple ; scapulars and innermost tertials velvet-black, glossed on the 

 inner webs with violet ; the latter with a white bar at the end ; greater coverts vio- 

 let, succeeded by a greenish speculum, tipped with white ; primaries silvery-white 

 externally towards the end ; the tips internally violet and purple ; iris red or grayish. 



Female with the wings quite similar ; the back more purplish ; the sides of the 

 head and neck ashy ; the region round the base of the bill, a patch through the eyes, 

 and the chin, white; the purple of the jugulum replaced by brownish; the waved 

 feathers on the sides wanting. 



Length, 19 inches ; wing, 9.50 ; tarsus, 1.40 ; commissure, 1.54 inches. 



Hob. Temperate North America, breeding throughout its range. 



The Wood Duck is a resident, and breeds in various sections of this 

 Commonwealth. During the breeding season it generally is found 

 about streams and ponds in heavily-wooded and thinly- populated dis- 

 tricts. In Pennsylvania this species is rare in winter and most plen- 

 tiful in autumn. The Wood Duck is an abundant winter resident in 

 Florida, where it also breeds. I have seen downy young of this bird 

 which were captured late in March, 1885, in Orange county, Florida. 

 " The Wood Duck breeds in the Middle States about the beginning of 

 April, in Massachusetts a month later, and in Nova Scotia, or on our 

 northern lakes, seldom before the first days of June. In Louisiana 

 and Kentucky, where I have had better opportunities of studying 

 their habits in this respect, they generally pair about the first of 

 March, sometimes a fortnight earlier. I never knew one of these 

 birds to form a nest on the ground or on the branches of a tree. They 

 appear at all times to prefer the hollow, broken portion of some large 

 branch, the hole of our large Woodpecker, or the deserted retreat of 

 the fox squirrel ; and I have frequently been surprised to see them go 

 in and out of a hole of any one of these, when their bodies, while on 

 the wing, seemed to be nearly half as large again as the aperature 

 within which they had deposited their eggs. Once only I found a 



