CHAPTER XIX.

DUSKY OR BLACK DUCK.

(Anas Obscura.)

Black Mallard in the West.

Adult Male.-Bill about the length of the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed and widened towards the end, rounded at the tip. Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed; neck, rather long and slender, body, full, depressed; feet, short, stout, placed a little behind the centre of the body; legs, bare a little above the joint; tarsus, short, a little compressed; hind toe, extremely small. Plumage dense, soft and elastic; on the head and neck the feathers linear oblong; on the other parts in general broad and rounded. Wings of moderate breadth and length, acute. Tail, short, much rounded, of eighteen acute feathers.

Bill, yellowish green; iris, dark brown; feet, orange red; the webs, dusky. The upper part of the head is glossy brownish black; the feathers margined with light brown; the sides of the head and a band over the eye are light grayish brown, with longitudinal dusky streaks; the middle of the neck is similar, but more dusky. The general color is blackish brown, a little paler beneath. All the feathers margined with reddish brown. The wing coverts are grayish-dusky, with a faint tinge of green; the ends of the secondary coverts. velvet-black. Primaries and their coverts blackish

brown, with their shafts brown; secondaries, darker; the speculum is green, blue-violet, or amethyst-purple, according to the light in which it is viewed,-bounded by velvet black; the feathers also tipped with a narrow line of white. The whole under surface of the wing, and the axillaries white. Length to end of tail twentyfour and a half inches; extent of wings thirty-eight and a half inches. Weight, 3 pounds.

Adult Female.-The female, which is somewhat smaller, resembles the male in color, but is more brown and has the speculum of the same tints, but without the white terminal line. Length to end of tail 22 inches; extent of wings 34 1-4.

The dusky duck, or as they are called in the West, "black mallard," is very rarely killed here. It is essentially an eastern duck. Occasionally it strays away seeking pastures new, and the Western hunter is pleasantly surprised as well as gratified, when by chance he bags a few of these birds. They are about the size, perhaps a trifle larger, than our mallard, but in taste and habits appear identical. There are places in the West where they are fairly, one might say, quite plentiful; but this is the exception, and not the rule.

CHAPTER XX.

AMERICAN COOT-MUD-HEN, HELL-DIVER.

WEBSTER defines a fowl to be, "a vertebrate animal, having two legs and two wings, and covered with feathers, or down; a bird." This definition is far reaching and admits of a generous construction, and one needs absolute freedom of analysis in attempting to classify Coots-or, as we call them in the West, "mud-hens" and "hell-divers "-as wild fowl. The universal opinion of Western hunters is, that they are a harmless nuisance, neither fit for sport nor food. 'Tis true they are bipeds, winged animals, but are a poor excuse for meat--only to be tolerated when the larder is empty, and the cravings of a strong stomach demand flesh for sustenance. At such a time a person could shut his eyes, fix his thoughts far off, accept this food sent him in the way of manna, transfer himself to the days of Biblical times, imagine himself an Elijah, not fed by ravens, but feeding on mud-hens. Under such circumstances, a person ought to get along fairly well, providing he can keep his thoughts at all times removed from the existing condition of things. Perhaps I am incompetent to sit as judge, and condemn these birds, when an honest confession forces me to admit I never tasted them. My opinion is based entirely on hearsay,-incompetent in a legal sense, but in a gastronomical one, sufficient for all practical purposes. Frequently they are eaten by hunters, and with-so they say great relish. They claim they taste some

what similar to a duck, but are strong and rank. It doesn't add to the flavor by any means, that after the flesh has been hastily masticated, and is carried with the current of saliva down one's esophagus, that it leaves in the mouth an unpleasant taste of both fish and mud.

The only person I have really heard compliment them was an amateur hunter who carried several of them home, the result of his shooting, and ate them under the impression they were young ducks, although he was unable to acquaint his wife with the name of the species.

They are familiar to every duck-shooter, and it is unnecessary to describe them ornithologically. In the fall of the year, in late summer, one has only to visit any marshy, shallow place, where ducks in season frequent, and these dark blue, slaty-black little fellows will be seen in hundreds and thousands, their sharp white bills so conspicuous,-like a wedge driven into their head. They dislike flight, and will resort to every means of hiding rather than to escape by flight. They are strong swimmers and expert divers. For both purposes nature has provided them abundantly, as their feet are broad, legs long, and extend far back, in flight reaching behind them like a stork's. Their food consists of larvæ, rice, but chiefly of tender roots, which they get by diving down and tearing them from the mud. In habits they are fraternal, and affiliate together in large flocks, at times blackening the water, so plenty are they. While voracious feeders, they enjoy a good time, and some of them will wade out on shallow mudbanks, or clamber up on musk-rat houses, and sit for hours quietly dozing, while their companions in the water are industriously feeding, sipping, chattering, and uttering faint whistling sounds which are readily con