271 
ochre-brown ; underparts dark chestnut-brown^ spotted and blotched with black, and marked on the sides 
with irregular lunate spots of blaekish brown ; long feathers overlapping the thighs dusky brown, crossed 
by broad undulating bands of fulvous ; spot on each side of the rump white, with numerous crescents and 
freckles of brown ; under tail-coverts pale brown, varied with darker, and vermiculated with black. Bill dark 
brown ; feet pale brown. 
Young female. Punctation on the sides of the head and neck more distinct than in the adult ; the whole of the 
upper surface blackish brown, only faintly glossed with green, the scapulars and upper tail-coverts narrowly 
margined with paler brown ; breast, sides of the body, and the whole of the abdomen dull greyish brown, 
darker on the former, each feather margined with fulvous brown ; under wing-coverts and axillary plumes 
pure white ; the long feathers overlapping the thighs dark brown, with paler edges, but without any mark- 
ings j upper wing-coverts dull purplish grey ; the secondaries merely glossed with green, and their coverts 
tipped with white. 
Nestling. The nestling is covered with thick down, with long produced filaments on the upper parts of the body. 
The downy feathers composing the tail are rather long and have broad spreading plumelets. The upper 
surface is bright olive-brown ; a broad stripe over the eye, another less distinct immediately below the eye, 
a conspicuous spot on each side of the back behind the wings, and another on each side of the rump, fulvous 
yellow, shading into brownish olive on the sides of the body and on the breast. Bill brown, with a yellow 
nail. 
Albino. There is a partial albino in the Canterbury Museum — a fine male specimen. Head and nape very highly 
glossed ; a pure white patch crosses the lower fore neck, where the white line should come, then spreads 
upwards and entirely covers the shoulders and mantle, with only a broken dividing stripe of greyish brown, 
and is then continued on the scapulars, where it narrows down to a point j the white thigh-spot is exagge- 
rated, and the lateral tail-feathers are margined with white ; but in other respects the colours are as in the 
normal plumage. 
The first recorded specimens of this beautiful Duck were forwarded to Europe by Mr. Walter Mantell 
in 1866 ; and Mr. Gould was thus enabled to give a figure and description of the adult male in the 
Supplement to his ‘ Birds of Australia ; ’ but the female was then unknown, and no account of the 
species in the difi’erent conditions of plumage has hitherto appeared. Having myself enjoyed favour- 
able opportunities for studying the bird in its native haunts, and having obtained numerous specimens 
from various parts of the country, I am enabled to give a very complete descriptive history of it from 
youth to maturity. 
The species appears to come very near to Mhynchaspis rhynchotis of the Australian continent ; but 
the late Mr. Gould assured me that, although probably a hundred examples of the latter had passed 
through his hands, he had never seen one with so much white on the sides of the neck and breast as 
the New-Zealand bird exhibits, and that he had no doubt whatever about their being specifically 
distinct. Although more familiar with our own bird than the Australian, my examination and com- 
parison of a great number of specimens has brought me to the same conclusion. Whether the two 
species present other differences of plumage in their earlier states cannot at present be determined, 
inasmuch as no sufficiently complete account of the Australian bird has ever yet been given. I care- 
fully examined the specimens in the Australian Museum ; but these were all in adult plumage ; and 
Mr. Gould s own collection, being in Philadelphia, is, unfortunately, not readily accessible. The 
Australian specimens in the British Museum are all males in full plumage, and therefore do not assist 
the inquiry *. 
* Since the above was written I have seen a young male of the Australian bird in the Ifatural-History Museum at Edin- 
burgh (wrongly labelled Spatula clypeata) : it very closely resembles our Bhynchaspis variegata in the same stage ; but the breast is 
decidedly darker. 
