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BIRDS OF AMERICA 



GREEN-WINGED TEAL 

 Nettion carolinense ((Jiiwlin) 



A. O. U. Number 139 See Color I'late ij 



Other Names. — Green-wing; Red-headed Teal; 

 Winter Teal : Mud Teal. 



General Description. — Length, 14 inches. Males are 

 gray and red above, and whitish and red below ; females 

 are brown above, and whitish below. 



Description. — Adult Male; Head, slightly crested. 

 Head and upper neck, rich chestnut ivith a glossy green 

 patch behind eye, blackening on lower border and on 

 back where it meets its fellow, bordered below by a 

 whitish streak; upper parts, grayish, very finely waved 

 with dusky; speculum, 'c'elvet-black on outer half, rich 

 glossy green on inner; primaries and wing-coverts, 

 grayish ; greater coverts with chestnut tips margining 

 the speculum in front ; breast, warm brownish ; rest 

 of lower parts, whitish speckled with round dusky 

 spots on breast ; sides, grayish, finely waved with dusky ; 

 a white crescent in front of wing; bill, dusky lead 

 color, darker below ; feet, bluish-gray ; iris, brown. 

 Adult Female: Head (no crest) and neck, light warm 

 brown, whitening on throat and darkening on crown. 



Teals might be called the bantams of the duck 

 tribe, as regards size. Their swiftness of flight 

 is in inverse ratio to mere bigness, and probably 

 there is nothing more rapid that ilies. The 

 celerity with which a Teal can vault into the air 



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Photo by H. \; 



'^^W. 



Couriesy of Outing Pub. Co. 



NEST OF GREEN-WINGED TEAL 



when alarmed is astonishing. In all its move- 

 ments it evinces a real grace, a peculiar charm. 

 From the culinary standpoint, surely there is 

 nothing more luscious in the realm of water- 

 fowl, no, not even the vaunted Canvas-back. 

 The Green-wing and the Blue-wing are the 



spotted with dark brown ; upper parts, dark brown, 

 each feather with distinct tawny edgings ; sides of 

 body, the same ; rest of lower parts, whitish ; wing as 

 in male but speculum duller. Young of the Year: 

 Resemble adult female. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: On the ground, usually in 

 a thick growth of grass or among willows; constructed 

 of dry grass; lined with feathers and down. Eggs: 

 8 to II, sometimes 12, pale buff. 



Distribution. — North America at large ; breeds 

 from the Aleutian Islands across British America to 

 Newfoundland, south to central California, northern 

 New Mexico, northern Nebraska, nortliern Illinois, 

 southern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick; winters 

 from Aleutian Islands, British Columbia, Nevada, 

 southern Nebraska, northern Indiana, western New 

 York, and Rhode Island (casually Nova Scotia) south 

 to southern Lower California, the West Indies, and 

 Honduras ; accidental in Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, 

 and Great Britain. 



two Teals of North America which are well 

 known and widely distributed. Of the two the 

 (jreen-wing is the hardier, lingering in the north- 

 ern States late in the fall and even at times well 

 into the winter, as long as there is any open water 

 at all to be found in the ponds or at warm spring- 

 holes. It is also, on the whole, the more north- 

 erly of the two, both in its winter range and in 

 its breeding. 



Of late years both species have been growing 

 regrettably scarce in the eastern districts of the 

 country. When found at all it is usually only a 

 single bird or a pair. But in parts of the central 

 and western districts there are still good flocks 

 to be seen. 



The nesting of the Green-wing is mostly in the 

 Northwest, not so commonly on the sloughs of the 

 open prairies of the Dakotas and southern Mani- 

 toba as in the more brush-grown regions further 

 west and north. It grows more numerous as one 

 I)enetrates into northern Manitoba and western 

 Saskatchewan. In the latter it likes the alkaline 

 ponds, and in the fortner the poplar forest lakes. 

 The nest has seemed to me one of the most dif- 

 ficult of Ducks' nests to discover, in that it is 

 usually located well back from water, sometimes 

 near the edge of meadow and forest. These 

 Teals frequent the open marshy pools, but my 

 search for their nests in the grass nearby was 

 usually in vain. They were generally discovered 

 by accident. One was found near the cabin of 

 an Indian half-breed by the edge of a cattle- 

 pasture, amid grass, weeds, and low brush. 



