THE TRUE DUCKS. 
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have eggs before May, and they do not breed until they arc 
two or more years old. 
Nest. — A large structure of dead reeds and grass, sometimes 
more than two feet high and five feet across. 
Eggs. — Three to five in number, but more are often found, 
and sometimes as many as ten or twelve have been recorded. 
They are greenish-white, and measure : Axis, 4-3-4-65 inches ; 
diam., 2'8-3'i. 
THE TRUE DUCKS. SUB-FAMILY ANATIN/E. 
All the members of this Sub-family have, according to Count 
Salvadori, the hind-toe very narrowly lobed. There is in nearly 
every species a “speculum” of metallic colour on the wing, 
and the males have a bony swelling, or “ bulla ossea,” on the 
trachea. The bill is rather flat and broad in the true Ducks, 
and distinguishes them from the Ckenonellinee, or Goose-like 
Ducks, which inhabit the Southern Hemisphere. 
The Egyptian Goose, as it is called, i^Chenalopex agyptiaca), is 
considered by Count Salvadori to belong to the present Sub- 
family. It is a species which has long been kept in confinement, 
and the many examples which have been shot in a wild state 
are doubtless individuals which have escaped. The same may 
be said of the Summer Duck {^x. sponsa) and the Muscovy 
Duck {Cairina moschata). The changes of plumage through 
which most of the Ducks pass is very curious, and there are at 
least six of these. After the young have acquired their first 
plumage, both sexes resemble the old female. In the first 
year they are like the adults, but differ somewhat from both ; 
then the male has a separate plumage from the female in the 
fully adult stage, and lastly there is the post-nupital dress of the 
male, wdien he retires into a sober-coloured plumage like that 
of his wife. This is when he is about to moult his quills, and 
at this season the males keep mostly apart from the females. 
Mr. De Winton writes to me : “All the Ducks take ori the 
characteristic ‘ adult ’ plumage in the first year, but this is far 
from perfect, and though they may breed, I believe that it takes 
quite four years before a Duck arrives at the perfection of 
plumage. The full dress is scarcely complete by Christmas, 
8 S 
