Species that have been excluded occur only accidentally in the southeast. Re- 

 cords for eight (West Indian Whistling Duck [ Dendrocygna arborea ] , Red-breasted 

 Goose [Branta ruf icollis ] , Ruddy Shelduck [ Tadorna ferruginea ] , Baikal Teal 

 [ Anas formosa ] , Falcated Teal [ Anas falcata ] , Garganey [A. querquedula ] , Man- 

 darin Duck [ Aix galericulata ] , Muscovy Duck [ Cairina moschata ] ) of the eleven 

 species excluded are likely based on escaped captive birds. Two other species 

 that we have not included stray into the southeast only rarely, one from the 

 north (Barrow's Golden-eye [ Bucephala islandica ] ) and the other from the Carib- 

 bean (White-cheeked Pintail [ Anas bahamensis ] ) . We have also excluded the Smew 

 ( Mergus albellus ) because the record from Louisiana is believed to be unsatis- 

 factory (Palmer 1976b). The remaining species excluded, the Trumpeter Swan 

 ( Cygnus buccinator ) , formerly wintered along the Texas and Louisiana coasts but 

 is no longer found there (Palmer 1976a). 



Nearly half the species treated here occur primarily in freshwater habi- 

 tats in the southeast. Most of the rest occur primarily in marine and coastal 

 areas or are found widely on both fresh and salt water in the southeast . Some 

 of these, primarily freshwater species (e.g., Mallard [ Anas platyrhynchos ] , 

 Common Pintail [ Anas acuta ] ) , occur in the southeast in extremely large numbers 

 during winter and others (e.g., Lesser Scaup [ Aythya aff inis ] , Redhead [ Aythya 

 americana ] ) are of considerable economic importance because they are major game 

 bird species. 



Two species treated more fully (Black Duck [ Anas rubripes ] and Canvasback 

 [ Aythya valisinerla ] ) are on the most recent Blue List (Tate 1981), a list that 

 attempts to identify species declining in all or part of their range. The Black 

 Duck is seriously threatened by genetic swamping by populations of Mallards 

 ( Anas platyrhynchos ) now breeding in the eastern United States (Tate 1981), and 

 the Canvasback is a much hunted species whose harvest is being carefully regu- 

 lated by the Fish and Wildlife Service. 



SCIENTIFIC AND VERNACULAR NAMES 



The species accounts are headed by the English and scientific names of the 

 species, followed by vernacular names in other languages and alternative names 

 in English. The primary English names and scientific names are based on those 

 used by the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list (AOU 1957) and its sup- 

 plements (AOU 1973, 1976). Footnotes explain recently adopted changes in sci- 

 entific names. The arrangement of species within the family Anatidae follows 

 the revised edition of Volume I of Peters' Check-list of Birds of the World 

 (Johnsgard 1979). 



The primary source for most of the non-English vernacular names was the 

 Nomina Avium Europaearum (Jorgensen 1958); other sources consulted included 

 Dement ' ev and Gladkov (1952), Austin and Kuroda (1953), Edwards (1972), and 

 Cramp et al. (1977). The abbreviations for the languages and other geographi- 

 cal usages appearing in this section are as follows: 



PR: Portuguese 



RU: Russian 



SAf: South African 



