82 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The young birds become paler as they grow older. The plumage 

 develops in the same sequence as in the mallard. Young birds 

 graduall}'- develop, during the first fall and winter, a plumage closely 

 resembling that of the adult; by the month of March this first winter, 

 or first nuptial, plumage is generally complete; there are usually a 

 few spotted feathers scattered over the under parts, as signs of 

 immaturity and the wings are much duller than those of adults, with 

 little if any chestnut in the coverts. The molt into the eclipse 

 plumage begins in June and during the transitions of this first double 

 molt, young birds become indistinguishable from adults. 



Adult males begin to molt into the echpse plumage about the last 

 of May or first of June and by the end of June many dark, brown- 

 edged feathers, like those of the female are scattered through the 

 breast and flanks. I have seen males in full eclipse as early as Au- 

 gust 10 and as late as September 8; this plumage is an almost com- 

 plete reproduction of the female's, or young male's, excepting, of 

 course, the wings, which are molted only once in August. The molt 

 out of the eclipse plumage consumes about two months; I have seen 

 birds in this molt from September 8 to November 23, but I am in- 

 clined to think that old drakes usually attain their full plumage by 

 November 1st or earlier. There is no winter or spring molt in old 

 birds. Hybrids occur occasionally; Mr. William G. Smith (1887) 

 mentions a bcjiutiful male hybrid in which the color and size were 

 about equally divided between the gadwall and the baldpate; he also 

 "killed two specimens of gadwall with a distinct black ring about 

 the neck. Thej^ Mere male and female and were together." 



Food. — Like the mallard, the gadwall is a clean feeder, which 

 makes its flesh desirable for the table. It consumes a great variety of 

 food, most of which is obtained by tipping or dabbling about the edges 

 of marshy ponds, sloughs, or grassy, sluggish streams; it can dive well 

 for its food, hov.'ever, when necessary. Its vegetable food consists 

 of tender grasses, the blades, buds, seeds, leaves, and roots of various 

 aquatic plants, nuts, and acorns; it visits the grain fields to some 

 extent, where it picks up wheat, barley, buckwheat, and corn. 



According to Mr. Douglas C. Mabbott (1920): 



In habits the gadwall resembles the mallard, feeding either on dry land or in shal- 

 low water near the edges of ponds, lakes, and streams, where it gets its food by 

 "tilting" or standing on its head in the water. The food of both the gadwall and 

 the baldpate, however, is quite different in some respects from that of the mallard. 

 These two feed to a very large extent upon the leaves and stems of water plants, 

 paying less attention to the seeds, while the mallard feeds indiscriminately on both 

 or even shows some preference for the seeds. In fact, in respect to the quantity of 

 foliage taken, the gadwall and the baldpate are different from all other ducks thus 

 far examined by the Biological Survey. They are also more purely vegetarian, 

 their diet including a smaller percentage of animal matter than that of any of the 

 other ducks. 



