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The Secondary Remiges and Coverts in the Mandarin and Wood Ducks

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The Secondary Remiges and Coverts in the Mandarin and Wood Ducks VoL XLII] 1925 I MILLER, The Mandarin and WoodDucks. 41 with insects,constitute the principalfare during early life. But as the birds grow, rats assumea more importantrole, and in or neartx;•o different nests I foundremains, picked clean, of practically full-grownAmerican Bitterns (Botauruslentiglnosus). Now the youngAmerican Bittern is no meanantagonist, and the fact that suchlarge birds are actually killed and carriedto the nestindicates the calibre of the Harrier as a hunter. I recall, once before in the later fall, flushinga Harrier from the half-consumedremains of an adult Green Heron. This bird had possiblyacquired a taste for Ardeidae in earlier life. Duringthe fourth week of the young Harrier's life pellets of fur and feathers,containing some bone, begin to appear about the nest. These pellets are often as large, as compact and as well formedas thoseof the Short-caredOwls, constituting an interesting similaritybetween the two species. It is probablethat the failure to find pelletsabout the nestsearlier in the youngbrood's growth is due to the thoroughremoval of wasteby the adults,rather than any changein feedinghabits. 613 ClsvelandAve., Elizabeth,N.J. THE SECONDARY REMIGES AND COVERTS IN THE MANDARIN AND WOOD DUCKS. BY W. DE W. MILLER. T•E most striking peculiarityof the male Mandarin Duck is ßthe remarkablesail- or fandikeexpansion of the twelfthsecondary, an ornamentunique among birds. Correlatedwith this are other equally unusualfeatures, evident only on closeinspection. The thirteenth secondaryis reducedto a mere hidden vestige much shorterthan its greatercoverts, and the fourteenth,though twice a s long, is of far lessthan normalsize. Comparisonof the wingwith that of the WoodDuck (Aix sponsa) provesof greatinterest. In the latter there are severalremarkable features,notably the abbreviationof the twelfth secondarywhich is only four-fifthsas long as the remex on eachside of it. The peculiaritiesin the remigesof this specieswere pointed out by Mr. Proximal Secondariesof left wing from above, the coverts removed: A, of Wood Duck (Aix spons•),adult male; B, of Mandarin Duck (Dendronessa galericulata),adult male. In eachcase the abbreviatedsecondary (fourth from inner edge) has been raised. Vol.1925 XLII] ] MILLER,The Mandarin and Wood Ducks. 43 'Ridgway many years ago (Water Birds of North America, II, p. 12, 1884), but I can find no mention of the reducedsecondaries in the Mandarin nor any comparisonof the remigesof the two species,and it thereforeseems worth while to figure and describe them. Furthermore,the female Wood Duck has a peeullarity of its own in the greater secondarycoverts. In order to correctly comparethe abnormalremiges of the two speciesit is essentialthat their homologlesbe detm•nined. For this purposewe may first examine the undifferentiatedwings of the females. We find in the Mandarin eleventypical secondary remigesand five inner secondariesor "tertials," whleh differ in size, shapeand colorfrom the others. In the Wood Duck these remigesnumber ten and five respectively,i.e., there is one less typlealsecondary than in the alliedspecies. The tertialsare plain bronzy-olive,the first one longerand broaderthan the adjacent secondary,the four others graduated. We must decidewhether there has been an abrupt lossor gain (accordingto the species)of one of the typical secondaries,or whether there has beena changeat the proximalend of the series and the transformationof a tertial into a typical secondaryor vice versa. The longesttertlal is so unlike the adjacent typleal secondary that I believe any modlfieationof one into the other •Sthln the limits of the genusis most unlikely. Moreover, I have examined onefemale Wood Duck in whichthere are eleventypical secondaries as in the Mandarin, and in a male of the latter there are eleven in one wing and twelve in the other! It is fairly safe to assumethat the first eleven secondariesof the femaleMandarin correspondto the first ten of the WoodDuck and that while the long bronzy-oliveouter tertial is the twelfth quill in the former and the eleventh in the latter, yet the two are strletly homologous. The number of secondaries in the males is the same as in the femalesand on this assumptionit is evidentthat the remarkable sail-liketwelfth remexof the Mandarin correspondsto the eleventh quill of the Wood Duck and in eachease it is the first tertial. While these feathers are merely modifiedinner secondaries,it will be more convenientin the presentpaper to refer to them as 44 MILLr,R• The Mandarin and Wood Ducks. [J•n.[Auk tertials. To l•lr. JamesP. ChapinI am greatlyindebted for the two accompanyingfigures. COMPARISON OF THE SECONDARIESIN THE MALES. The first (distal) nine secondariesare normal in size and shape and virtually alike in the two speciesthough broader in the Wood Duck. In the Mandarin they are bronzy-olive,the last oneor two being steel-blueon the outer web, while in the Wood Duck all are steel-blue. In both specieseach feather is narrowly tipped with white. The next two feathers in the Mandarin are blue like the ninth but lack the white tip, or the tenth may have a very narrowtip. In the WoodDuck the tenth feather,which probably correspondsto the eleventhof the Mandarin and like it always lacksthe whitetip, differsin havingthe outerweb, which is largely bright copperyred, widening terminally, and the endof the feather angular. The twelfthquill or sail-featherof the Mandarinis, as already stated,the first tertial, and homologouswith the eleventhof the Wood Duck. In both birds,but particularlyin the Mandarin, this remexis much larger than the precedingfeather and widenstowards the end, but while in the Mandarin only the inner web is expanded, the outer beingeven narrower than usual,in the Wood Duck the outer web is considerablywider than the inner. In the Oriental bird the outer web of this sail-likefeather is violet-bluenearly to the tip, the rest of the feathertawny-rufous with blackand white terminal edges. In the Americanbird the inner web is fuscous, the outer velvety black, showingrich bluish greenreflections in certain lights, the tip of the featherpure white. The second tertial of the Mandarin is a miniature of the first, but the shaft is straight and the tawny inner web degeneratein character. It is a mere vestige ranging from fourteen to thirty millimetersin length (usuallyabout 17) in the few birdsexamined. The outer web is violet or this colormay be moreor lessreplaced by white or fuscous. It is crowdedin betweenthe neighboring quillsand hidden by theseand by its uppercovert which is two or three times as long. Except that the correspondingfeather of the Wood Duck is Vol. XLII] 1925 I MILLER, The Mandarin and WoodDucks. 45 considerablyshorter than the immediatelyadjacent tertials there is no resemblancebetween it and the Mandarin's vestigialremex. It resemblesits precedingtertial in colorand form but lacksthe white tip. Thethird tertial Of the Mandarin, while strikingly abbreviated, is about twice as long as the second. It is obliquelycut off on the inner web, the outer web tapering to an obtusepoint; light violet blue, the inner web sometimeswith a narrow white terminal edge. In the Americanspecies this feather is whollydifferent and dosely resemblesthe first and secondtertials, being of the same length as the first but, like the second,with no white tip. The last two tertials of the Mandarin are plain bronzy-olive feathers,the fourth a little shorterthan the third, the fifth only half as long as the fourth. In the Wood Duck the fourth tertial is about three-fourthsto four-fifths as long as the large third one. It resemblesthe latter in colorbut is usually duller and is much narrower and does not widen terminally. The last tertial is a small plain feather, sometimesdegenerate and shorter than its covert, or twice as long, (considerablyexceeding its covert) and firm webbed. The anomalous relations of the second and third tertials of the male Wood Duck is reflected in the female in which the third feather is often scarcelyshorter than the second. In the female Mandarin there is no suchapproach to the charactersof the male but the first tertial is much longerand broader than the others. To sum up, the first three tertials are conspicuouslymodified in the malesof both species,the first two at least are broad and truncate, and the secondone shorter than the first and third. All three of these feathers, however, are much more modified and peculiarin the Mandarin than in the BroodDuck and the difference in size between them is far more marked. Thus while the first tertial of the former is more expandedthan in any other Duck, the next one is unique in its vestigial condition. Furthermore, in the Mandarin the inner web of each feather is far wider than the outer, whereas in the Wood Duck the outer is the wider. The remigesimmediately adjoining these tertials also differ con- spicuouslyin the two species. In the male Wood Duck the first and third tertials are equal 46 MILLER,The Mandarin and Wood Ducks. [Jan.[Auk and longest,only the last t•vo being graduated, while in all other membersof the family at least three are shortened. In the •VIan- darin,on the otherhand, the third is disproportionatelyabbreviated and actually much shorter than in any other Anserincbird. As already stated, the Wood Duck has but fifteen secondaries, one fewer than the Mandarin. This is the minimum number in the Anatidae, for of the thirty-six genera examined by me none has fewer than sixteen secondaries,and all but six have more than sixteen. In certaingroups of birds,as the Tyrannidaeand Cotingldae,the primaries are not infrequently irregular in length, and this is carried to an extremein Tityra in which the ninth primary is reducedto a vestigebetween two quills of normal length. So far as I am aware no suchreduction in the length of a sec- ondaryhas heretofore been recorded in any bird, for whichreason the state of thesequills in the Mandarin and Wood Ducksis especi- ally notable.
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