58 HIST our OF the 



waters, preferring the lagoons, sliallow ponds and niarsliy pools 

 of fresh water. 



This bird is, without doubt, a summer resident within the 

 State. Their nests are usually placed on marshy grounds, in the 

 old, dead grass, and are lined with a few feathers and down. 

 Eggs eight to ten. One set of eight, collected near Corpus 

 Christi, Texas, May 27th. 1882, are in dimensions as follows: 

 2.08x1.62, 2.12x1.62, 2.10x1.58, 2.12x1.60, 2.12x1.59, 2.08 

 xl.62, 2.10x1.60, 2.08x1.69; in color, cream or pale buff white; 

 in form, oval to ovate. 



Subgenus CHAULELASMUS Bonaparte. 

 Culmen shorter than middle toe without claw. Distance from anterior 

 border of nostril to tip of upper mandible more than three times the distance 

 from same point to nearest loral feathers; lamellae numerous, fine, more than 

 thirty being visible from outside; tail feathers sixteen. (Ridgtcay.) 



Anas strepera Linn. 



GAD WELL. 



PLATE V. 



Summer resident; rare; in migration, common. Arrive the 

 middle of March to first of April. Begin laying the last of 

 May. Leave late in the fall. 



B. 584. R. (304. C. 711. G. 284, 26. U. 135. 



Habitat. Northern hemisphere in general; south in winter 

 to Central America; breeding in temperate rfegions. 



Sp. Char. ^^ Adult male, in fall, winter and, spring: Ground color of the 

 head and neck pale brown, or brownish white, thickly speckled with black; on 

 the pileum the brown deeper and more uniform, and the specks obsolete; on 

 the occiput, when present, they incline to the form of transverse bars. Jugulum 

 marked with greatly curved bars, or crescents, of white and black, the bars of 

 the latter wider. Lateral portions of the body beneath, back and scapulars 

 finely undulated, in curved transverse lines, with slate color and white. Many 

 of the longer scapulars plain brownish gray, broadly edged with a lighter, more 

 fulvous tint. Rump plain dull slate. Tail coverts, above and below, intense 

 opaque velvety black. Tail cinereous, faintly edged with white. Middle rows 

 of wing coverts bright chestnut, the anterior coverts brownish gray, and the 

 posterior ones deep black; last row deep velvety black. Speculum immaculate 

 pure white, the lower feathers cinereous (some with black on outer webs), nar- 

 rowly tipped with white; tertials plain pale ash, the primaries a darker shade 

 of the same. Bill bluish black; iris reddish ha/.el; feet dull orange yellow; 

 claws browuish blark; webs dusky. Adult mule, in summer: Crown brownish 



