File:A natural history of the ducks (1922) (14578268120).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof01phil (find matches)
Title: A natural history of the ducks
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Phillips, John C. (John Charles), 1876-1938
Subjects: Ducks
Publisher: Boston New York : Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
in male. Wing 325-330 mm.; bill 40; tarsus 58-62. Lvimature: As Sclater noted in 1866 both sexes pass through a plumage more nearly resembling the males than the females, a fact of great interest and rarity in the bird world. The head and upper portion of the neck are sooty black, varied with light brown; lower portion of neck dark brown, with narrow transverse hues of rufous; the whole of the under surface blackish brown, mottled and barred with rufous, each feather narrowly margined with white; shoulders, back and lower parts of the body black, with white freckles and vermiculations; wings as in the adult; rump and tail black; under tail-coverts pale ferruginous (Buller). Young males have a tinge of brown about the head and the shoulders more or less margined with dull fulvous brown, presenting on the surface, wavy lines (Buller). Young females show irregular white feathers on the head and neck, which rapidly increase in number, till the plumage of these parts becomes entirely white (Buller).
Text Appearing After Image:
NEW ZEALAND or PARADISE SHELDRAKE 251 Young m Down: Specimens which I saw in the Leyden Museum seemed to me indistinguishable from young of the Common Sheldrake. Buller's description follows: Covered with soft down, for the most part pure white, but largely varied on the upper surface with brown; the cheeks, throat, fore neck, and all the under surface entirely white; the top and upper sides of the head, in a line with the eyes, the hind neck and shoulders, a broad mark down the back spreading on the tail, the anterior portion and tips of wings, and a broad patch on each flank, continued in a line over the thighs, dull umber-brown; bill and feet pale brown. Remarks: It is probable that all the Sheldrakes have at least a partial double moult. This has been referred to in connection with the Common Sheldrake. In the present species the female has been noticed to assume colors somewhat like those of the male, on the mantle, flanks, scapulars and belly, after the breeding season (Jones, Avicult. Mag

Note About Images