9]/'^va., S. -$vt , '£nA&t'<>otsi&C'' 
I have also killed recently a very fine Albino 
Mallard drake, a light cream color throughout. 
(p+te.xn. m. /m./t. /«/ 
About plumage of the Mallard Drake: does j 
not everybody know that the “green wing- 1 
patch ” is constant with both sexes in all 
plumages? The Drake does not always, at 
least, don his bachelor coat in May, else the 
expression “breeding plumage ” is a misnomer. 
I have seen the drakes in full plumage as far 
south as Central Kansas, as late as the middle 
of June. 
The moult of the summer plumage is really 
not a moult but a chromatic change, such 
| as certain hares and Ptarmigans undergo. 
TIence, the effect is often “patchy,” as often 
in tiie case of hares. This effect is the most 
noticeable on the head and neck, which are 
the last parts to change. 1 have heads, pre¬ 
served for the study of these very conditions, 
the birds being taken in Kansas as late as 
November. At that date and in that locality 
the proportion of perfect male plumages, 
|among the male birds, was from one-tliird to 
one-fourth, roughly speaking. In some heads 
the green feathers are generally diffused, in 
others distributed in patches, none of them 
having a “budding” appearance. Of all this, 
more later. 
A gentleman who kept a pair of American 
Goldfinches in confinement lately told me that 
the color of the plumage turned, in the spring, 
from drab-olive to golden yellow, in less than 
a week. Perhaps these changes have much in 
common; though the age of the Mallard 
Drake is certainly an important factor. 
°.& Q, Y Qlq7 ,Mar.l8&2 fi bf'lo ^ 
