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Correspondence About "Evolutionary Relationships Among The North American Mallards", Allan R. Phillips, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard

The confusing leading article of the 1961 Auk calls for comment. Despite his title, "Evolutionary Relationships among the North American Mallards," the author discusses primarily geographic distributions, population sizes, egg-white proteins( !), and certain behavioral patterns. Maps are based on ". . . the literature, personal communications, and the major United States collections," " . and from additional sight and specimen records available to me"; yet only two museums other than Cornell University are mentioned in the acknowledgments. These maps show many records of platyrhynchos far to the south; sometimes (Figure 1) the reader must search hard for any hint …