Aa^uXoo <~^. Cr-cA^rt (rf CQ^&Umj^ ( (Q-<+^t. A+-t} 
^c^^t =-, cJLie xx/// pj.jfo 6 u, 3'/s'. 
^ AaJ. £.tyh £. 5-fX^ 7 - 
Hybrid Black Duck (Anas obscura rubripes f ).— The status 
of the Black Duck here is quite interesting. According to local 
ornithologists of long standing and of ability, the facts do not 
agree with Brewster’s position as stated in Yol. XIX of ‘The 
Auk.’ We may revert to this sometime in the future. What is 
to be recorded here is an apparently new and curious hybrid. On 
last Nov. 20, I saw in the Ottawa market a number of Black 
Ducks that were strikingly dissimilar to the common form. The 
head was larger, the neck thicker and shorter, the color blacker, 
especially also about the head and neck, and the bill and tarsus 
shorter and stouter. The dealer said they had been shot on the 
St. Lawrence River, near Montreal. Two ornithological friends 
of mine, who besides being highly competent ornithologists, are 
also sportsmen of long experience, say that this form is a hybrid 
between Black Ducks used on the St. Lawrence as decoys find 
some domestic ducks. Are similar hybrids noticed elsewhere ? 
— The more common hybrid form, Black Duck + Mallard also 
occurs here. 
Birds of Toronto, Ontario. 
By James H.Fleming. 
Pt.I, Water Birds. 
AuK, XXIII, Oct., 1906, p.444. 
32 Anas obscura rubripes. Red-legged Black Duck — Common 
migrant. The dates given for the Black Duck include this rather doubtful 
form, which remains later and consequently more are taken in the fall 
than of the other. 
