44 



U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 3 



Blue-winged Teal 



Anas discors Linnaeus 



One record of this most unlikely host species has been published by 

 W. J. Hamilton III (1957, p. 279), who flushed a female blue-winged 

 teal from an empty nest on June 2, 1956, near Delta, Manitoba. Six 

 days later, he found that the nest contained the remains of 3 teal eggs, 

 apparently destroyed by a skunk, and with them were 2 cowbird eggs. 

 On June 11, another cowbird egg was found on the open ground about 

 30 yards from the destroyed teal nest. As Hamilton properly remarks, 

 occasionally a female cowbird may be obliged to deposit an egg in an 

 inappropriate spot; the fact that 2 eggs were laid in this nest and 

 another nearby suggests that the parasites may have been finding it 

 difficult to locate more suitable depositories in the immediate vicinity. 



