GADWALL OR GREY. 385 



which has been adopted by succeeding ornithologists. 

 Their food, consists of small fish, shelly mollusca, insects 

 and aquatic plants. 



The trachea of the male is provided with a large la- 

 byrinth, but in most respects agrees with that of the 

 Mallard. 



The Gadwall is about 23 inches in length ; the wing 10^ inches ; 

 the bill above, is about 1 inch 7 lines; the tarsus 1 inch 6 lines. — 

 In the male, the top of the head and nape are liver-brown edged with 

 grey. Head beneath and heck grey with small brown specks. Base 

 of the neck above and below, anterior part of the back, exterior 

 scapulars, flanks, and sides of the vent, clove-brown, marked with 

 concentric horse-shoe shaped white lines. Interior scapulars, lesser 

 coverts, primaries, tertiaries, and tail, hair-brown; intermediate 

 coverts, chestnut-brown ; greater coverts, rump, and upper and 

 under tail coverts, bluish-black. Speculum white, its anterior bor- 

 der black. Lower part of the breast, middle of the belly, and under 

 surface of the wings white. First and second quills equal and 

 longest. Legs orange. Bill brownish-black, pale beneath, as lono- 

 as the .head, of equal breadth and height at the rictus ; depressed but 

 not widening anteriorly. Laminae of the mandibles rather stronger 

 and much shorter than those of the Shoveler, but finer and more 

 numerous than those of any other northern species. The upper 

 ones project a tenth of an inch beyond the margin Wings nearly 

 equal to the tail. 



In the female the feathers of the back are blackish-brown, edged 

 with pale rufous; the breast reddish-brown, spotted with black; 

 there are no zig-zag lines on the flanks ; and the rump and inferior 

 tail coverts are grey. — In a young male, now before me, the 

 general plumage is that of the female, dusky-brown with dull 

 yellowish-brown edgings to the feathers, but none of the delicate 

 curving lines of the male in those parts. The summit of the head 

 is very dark-brown. The speculum is white mixed with grey, ante- 

 riorly bounded with blackish and grey : greater coverts over the 

 speculum only, black with green reflections, no chestnut on any of 

 the coverts, and the scapulars dusky. Rump the general color of the 

 back : under tail coverts paler. Below spotted with dusky, the 

 spots large and roundish ; wing linings and long axilliaries pure 



33 



