Well I wanted to revisit some of the questions we discussed on this thread in light of the conversation I had today with the duck breeder I know, Clare Shire. First off, I had said earlier in this thread that she had bred a Gold hen and drake and come out with Silver offspring. I must have misunderstood something she said because when I asked her about it today she didn't remember that happening.
On the hood question it turns out the appearance is just a matter of the degree of darkness the duck has, a darker female will show the hood at certain stages of the yearly molt cycle and on the lightest ducks the hood may never reveal itself. The darker color is preferred just up to but not to the point of showing the hood.
It turned out Clare was a really good person to ask because she was asked to write an article about Welsh Harlequin colors by the International Waterfowl Breeders Association for their next quarterly issue. She was told this article would be used by poultry judges to help them assess the Welsh Harlequin as the APA has never published an offical standard except for in one article in the Poultry Press.
Hopefully I got all that straight this time.