299 
ash-coloured spots ; the throat fore part of 
the neck and nape of an ash-coloured 
brown; the lower part of the neck, a large 
spot behind the eyes, belly and abdomen 
white ; breast and thighs varied with brown 
and ash-coloured spots. 
The male, even at the age of two years, 
has not the crown of the head and nape of a 
pure white; these parts, the throat and 
often the fore part of the neck are of a dus- 
ky brown, but interspersed with white and 
ash-coloured spots; the scapulars which 
are white or nearly so in the old males, are 
at this age of a yellowish or light brawn, 
with large spots of a deeper colour ; the 
middle feathers of the tail exceed the others 
in length by an inch or more. In this 
state of plumage (says Temminck) it is the: 
Anas hyemalis of Gmelin. 
This species is said to breed in Green- 
land and in, the neighbourhood of Hudson's 
Bay. The female makes her nest among 
the grass near the water, lined like that of 
the Eider Duck, with her own equally 
valuable down. She lays five white eggs 
spotted with blue, about the size of those 
