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A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Tips of tail-feathers of the Mallard. A, Adult. 

 B, Juvenile, to show difference in structure. 



of centre of back below wing and another on either side of rump 

 light yellow ; lores, cheeks, streak over eye and sides of neck yellow- 

 buff ; well-defined line of sepia from lores through eye to top of 

 nape, below this line in some a streak of sepia extending half-way 

 from nape to eye, in some a tiny streak of sepia at lateral base of 

 upper mandible ; remaining under -parts pale yellow- buff shading 

 to cream-buff or cream-yellow on breast and belly. 



Juvenile. Male. — In general appearance resembling adult 

 eclipse female but under-parts narrowly streaked* sepia, tail- 

 feathers narrower and 

 usually with tip of shaft 

 bare. Crown, mantle and 

 scapulars black-brown as 

 in adult female eclipse, but 

 feathers of crown and 

 mantle with narrower buff 

 edges, mantle with few buff 

 bars ; back and rump black- 

 brown or sepia glossed dull 

 olive ; lower-rump and upper 

 tail -coverts sepia, fringed 

 warm buff ; cheeks, sides of 

 neck and rest of under-parts 

 more narrowly streaked or 

 spotted ash-brown ; tail- 

 feathers ash-brown edged and irregularly marked warm buff, outer 

 feathers paler ; wing as adult male but innermost secondaries 

 shorter, duller and less suffused cinnamon-brown ; short inner ones 

 and innermost greater coverts hair-brown tipped buff ; greater 

 coverts in some with narrower white tips ; median and lesser 

 coverts as in adult male. Female. — As male, but feathers of back 

 and rump black-brown edged warm buff and sometimes barred 

 buff ; innermost secondaries shorter and browner than in juvenile 

 male and adult female ; median and lesser coverts with buff edges 

 (soon becoming abraded). 



First winter and summer. Male. — Like adult winter and summer 

 and when all juvenile body-feathers are renewed difficult to dis- 

 tinguish with certainty. Wing appears more worn than in adult 

 and some juvenile feathers are often retained on back and rump. 

 In some birds some snuff-brown feathers spotted or streaked dusky 

 or black-brown are acquired on cheeks and at sides of throat inter- 

 mixed with buff feathers with blackish tips, these feathers being 

 subsequently shed. In others chestnut -brown feathers of upper- 

 breast bordering lower-breast have small round blackish spots, 

 while in others more coarsely vermiculated flank-feathers appear. 

 These feathers on chin, throat and breast and flanks represent no 

 doubt traces of a plumage now lost. The body-feathers (not always 

 all those of back and rump), tail and innermost secondaries are 

 moulted Aug. to Dec. or even Feb. 



