"I took the wren's nest, 

 Bird, forgive me !" 



For but few of the most ardent seekers have succeeded in locating the habita- 

 tion of the fairy kinglet, and the unsuccessful majority perforce exclaim with 

 Wordsworth, 



"Oh, blessed bird ! The earth we pace 

 Again appears to be 

 An unsubstantial, fairy place. 

 That is fit home for thee !" 



Ihe Cradwall {ChauUlasmus streperus) 



Synonym. — Gray Duck. 



Description. — Adult male: Head and upper neck buffy, spotted or streaked 

 with dusky ; top of head darker brownish ; breast and lower neck all around dusky 

 and white, each feather with five to eight concentric half-rings of alternating 

 colors, presenting a handsomely scaled appearance; sides, back and scapulars 

 similarly varied with dusky and white, buffy, or ochraceous-white, in semi-con- 

 centric, zig-zag, or fine, wavy lines ; the posterior inner scapulars, not thus marked, 

 dull cinnamon-brown, darker centrally and edged with lighter, lanceolate ; lower 

 back dusky, becoming velvety black on lower tail-coverts and around on sides of 

 crissum ; middle wing-coverts bright chestnut ; the lesser dull brownish gray, the 

 greater velvety black ; speculum white, rather narrowly, the outer secondaries black 

 and dusky, the bounding tertials plain fuscous ; belly white or grayish, obscurely 

 barred posteriorly ; axillars and lining of wings white ; bill blue-black ; legs and 

 feet dull orange, the webs dusky. Adult male in breeding season: "Similar to 

 winter male, but colors duller, crown dusky, rump and breast tinged with rusty, 

 and under parts more spotted with dusky" (Ridgway). Adult female: "Head 

 and throat as in the male ; back fuscous margined with buffy ; breast and sides 

 ochraceous buffy, thickly spotted with blackish ; belly and under tail-coverts white, 

 more or less thickly spotted with blackish ; little or no chestnut on wing-coverts ; 

 speculum ashy gray and white ; axillars and under wing-coverts pure xvhite" 

 (Chapman). (No specimen in O. S. U. collection.) Length 19.00-22.00 (482.6- 

 558.8) ; wing 10.60 (269.2) ; tail 4.50 (114.3) ; bill 1.67 (42.4) ; tarsus 1.60 (40.6). 

 Female smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Something under Mallard size; ivhite speculiDn dis- 

 tinctive. 



Xest, on the ground near water, of grasses lined with feathers. Eggs, 8-12, 

 pale buffy or clay-colored. Av. size, 2.09x1.57 (53.1x39.9). 



Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan. Tn North ;\merica breeds chiefly within tht 

 United States. 



838 



