. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions : or, The swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America ... . t i6|; wing, 7^; tarsus, iy%; culmen, \\. Jtmnattire Male.—Head and neck, grayish brown, the lattermottled and blotched with black. Crest, brownish white, edgedwith blackish brown. Upper parts, blackish brown, all thefeathers tipped with pale brown. Wings, colored like the back,a few of the tertials having a white stripe in the center, and theouter webs changing to black. Rumjs and upper tail coverts,dark umber brown. Primaries, blackish brown, the webs edgedwith pal
. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions : or, The swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America ... . t i6|; wing, 7^; tarsus, iy%; culmen, \\. Jtmnattire Male.—Head and neck, grayish brown, the lattermottled and blotched with black. Crest, brownish white, edgedwith blackish brown. Upper parts, blackish brown, all thefeathers tipped with pale brown. Wings, colored like the back,a few of the tertials having a white stripe in the center, and theouter webs changing to black. Rumjs and upper tail coverts,dark umber brown. Primaries, blackish brown, the webs edgedwith pale brown. Breast, light brownish gray. Flanks, lightbrown. Lower breast, abdomen, and vent, white. Under tail 258 WATER FOWL. coNcrts, blackish brown. Tail, dark brown, feathers edged attip with brownish white. The feathers have a glossy appear-ance, but only give a slight indication of the plumage assumedby the adult male. Doivny Young.—M^-^ parts, brown, darkest on back andrump; lower portion of head, chin, and throat, light buff. Gray-ish white spot on either side of back and rump. Breast, palebrown; belly, J, SMEW. IT is, so to speak, rather stretching a point, to includethis beautiful species among the North AmericanWater Fowl, with only an example of a female in theBritish Museum, purchased from the Hudson Bay Com-pany, to prove the propriety of such a course. But Ihave always observed that ornithological committees aremost lenient when the admission of a handsome bird(which under the most favorable circumstance can beregarding as the merest exceptional straggler fromforeign lands) into their native avi-fauna is to be con-sidered. I must, however, warn my American readersnot to go hunting after this bird, for it is more thandoubtful if any one of them will ever see it in the fleshwithin the limits of North America, unless shipped therefrom some port in the Old World. It is true that Audu-bon claimed to have obtained a specimen, and this alsoa female, on Lake
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgameandgamebirds
