80 



MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



light scarlet to deep orange, the dark feathers of the pileum and nape 

 conspicuously margined with gray or fulvous and the throat (as well as 

 sometimes the chin, also) profusely spotted or streaked with blackish. 

 All the dark markings on the checks, throat and neck are broader, blacker 

 and more sharply defined [than in the southern form] and they often take 

 the form of coarse, rounded spots which are seldom if ever present on the 

 head or neck of the smaller bird. In typical examples [of the smaller 

 form] the bill is greenish black, dusky olive, or olive green, the legs are 

 .olivaceous brown with, at most, only a tinge of reddish, the pileum and 

 nape are nearly or quite uniformly dark, the throat and chin immaculate, 

 the markings on the neck and sides of the head fine, linear, and dusky 

 rather than blackish." (Auk, Vol. 19, 1902, pp. 184, 185). 



35. Gadwall. Chaulelasmus streperus (Linn.). (135) 



Synonyms: Gray Duck, Gray Widgeon. — Anas strepera, Linn., 1758. — Chaulelasmus 

 streperus of most authors. 



Figure 16 



The male is easily recognized by its chestnut middle wing-coverts and 

 the white speculum bordered in front by black. The female has the same 

 speculum, but usually no chestnut on the wings and can hardly be identi- 

 fied by the novice. 



Distribution. — Nearly cosmopolitan. In North America breeds chiefly 

 within the United States. 



This seems to be one of the rarer ducks in Michigan; it has been taken 

 here and there throughout the state, but is nowhere common. In southern 

 Michigan Purdy has 

 taken one at Plym- 

 outh; Swales reports an 

 adult female killed on 

 Monroe Marshes Octo- 

 ber 26, 1906, and a 

 young male and female 

 at the same place 

 about November 13; 

 Warren records it as 

 rare at Albion and oc- ^ ^ 

 casional at St. Joseph. ^ S^^;) 

 Most of the older lists ^y'J -" 

 have it, but it is omit- ' 

 ted by Cabot (1850). , 

 I have no record for - 



it for Ingham or the 

 adjoining counties and 

 it must be rare here. 



We have no record of 

 its nesting in the state 

 yet there is no reason 

 why it should not do so occasionally, and it probably does. Mr. A. C. Bent 

 (Auk, XVIII, 334-35) says that in North Dakota, where the species is 

 fairly abundant, it nests always on dry ground, but not far from the water. 



From Baird, Bre\\er & Ridgwaj's Water Birds of North America. 

 Little Brown & Co. 



