IJFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 81 



The bird's behavior when surprised depends altogether upon the stage of incuba- 

 tion reached. In general, the bird sits close until discovered; after that, if the eggs 

 are fresh, the duck n\ay flee upon sighting her enemy a hundred yards away; but if 

 the eggs are near hatching, she will endeavor to lead the investigator astray 

 by painfully dragging herself through the grass. If too much harassed, however, she 

 will desert her eggs outright rather than wait for what she regards as an inevitable 

 doom, and the same remark will apply to almost any of the nesting ducks. 



The down in the nest of the gadwall is smaller than that of the 

 mallard, darker colored, and otherwise different in appearance. In 

 color it is dark "hair brown," almost "fuscous," with whitish 

 centers and grayish tips. The breast feathers mixed with the down 

 are characteristic of the species, small, light colored, and with vari- 

 able patterns of dusky markings in the center, but with light tips. 

 Ft is difficult to distinguish, in the field, the nest of the gadwall from 

 that of the baldpate, as the eggs of the two are indistinguishable, and 

 the females are much alike. But the gadwall has more white in the 

 speculum, the bill is yellower, and the breast is spotted, all difficult 

 points to see as the female flies from the nest. 



Egg!^. — The gadwall lays from 7 to 13 eggs, but the usual set 

 consists of 10, 11, or 12 eggs. I have occasionally seen one or two 

 eggs of the lesser scaup duck in a gadwall's nest, and Mr. William 

 Spreadborough, ''on June 29, 1894, at Crane Lake, Saskatchewan, 

 took a nest of this species containing 13 eggs, 7 of vfliich were of the 

 lesser scaup," according to Macoun (1909). Undoubtedly the bald- 

 pate occasionally lays in the gadwall's nest, as the two species are 

 often intimately associated, but the eggs are nearly indistinguishable. 



The eggs of the gadwall are nearly oval in shape and are usually 

 shorter and more rounded than those of the baldpate, but there is 

 much individual variation in both species. Their color is a dull 

 creamy white, somewhat whiter than the baldpate's on the average. 

 The measurements of 100 eggs in various collections average 55.3 by 

 39.7 millimeters; the eggs shov/ing the four extremes measure 59.5 

 by 39.5, 57.5 by 43.5, 49.5 by 38 and 51 by 34.5 millimeters. The 

 period of incubation, which is performed wholly by the female, is 

 about 28 days. 



Plumage. — The downy young of the gadwall is very much like 

 that of the mallard, except that it is decidely paler and less richly 

 (colored; the pale yellow of the under parts is more extensive on the 

 sides and head extending nearly around the neck where it is separated 

 by a narrow dark stripe on the nape, the light superciliary stripe is 

 broader; the dark loral and postocular stripe is narrower and the 

 uricular spot is hardly noticeable. The upper parts are "bister," 

 deepening on the crown to "bone brown"; the under parts are 

 "cartridge buff," paler on the belly and deepening to "cream buli" 

 or " Naples yellow " on the neck and sides of the head; the light 

 patches on the scapulars and sides of the rump are buffy white. 



