72 DUSKY DUCK. 
tending over the eye, and ending in reddish ; behind the ear, 
a similar spot; neck, black; ending below in a circle of 
white; breast, deep slate; shoulders or sides of the breast, 
marked with a semicircle of white; belly, black; sides, 
chestnut ; body above, black or deep slate, some of the 
scapulars, white; greater wing-coverts, tipt with the same; 
legs and feet, deep ash ; vent and pointed tail, black. 
The female is described as being less ; “ the forehead, and 
between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the same be- 
hind the ear ; head, neck, and back, brown, palest on the fore 
part of the neck; upper part of the breast and rump, red 
brown ; lower breast and belly, barred pale rufous and white ; 
behind the thighs, rufous and brown; scapulars and wine- 
coverts, rufous brown; outer greater ones, blackish ; quills 
and tail, dusky, the last inclining to rufous ; legs, dusky.” * 
The few specimens of this duck which I have met with 
were all males; and from the variation in their colours it 
appears evident that the young birds undergo a considerable 
change of plumage before they arrive at their full colours. In 
some the white spot behind the eye was large, extending irre- 
cularly half way down the neck; in others confined to a 
roundish spot. 
The flesh of this species is said to be excellent. 
DUSKY DUCK. (Anas obscura.) 
PLATE LXXIL—Fic. 5. 
Arct. Zool. No. 469.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 545.—Peale’s Museum, No. 2880. 
BOSCHAS? OBSCURA.—JARDINE.} 
Anas obscura, Bonap. Synop. p. 384. 
Tals species is generally known along the sea-coast of New 
Jersey and the neighbouring country by the name of the black 
* Latham. 
+ Having now arrived at the conclusion of a group which holds a 
very prominent rank in the ornithology of Northern America, a few 
