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This bird, like all the species of Ducks, 
is subject to variety according to age as 
well as season ; in some specimens the fore- 
head is almost white, and the feathers on 
the back and sides mottled with brown; 
the wing coverts mixed with white. The 
autumnal plumage of the female is some- 
times very much tinged with rufous. Tem- 
minck remarks that " in the very old males 
the yellowish white of the forehead does 
not extend to the crown of the head, as it 
does in the males of a year old. The old 
males only have the wing coverts of a pure 
white." We have given portraits of both 
sexes of this species, as likewise a drawing 
of the trachea, in order to enable our read- 
ers correctly to ascertain the bird in any 
change of plumage to which this species is 
subject. 
On the approach of winter these birds 
quit the desert morasses of the north, and 
as they advance towards the end of their 
journey, spread themselves along the shores, 
and over the marshes and lakes in various 
parts of the continent, as well as those of 
the British Isles, In Somersetshire, and 
2 o 
