LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 89 



Casual records. — North American records must be regarded as cas- 

 uals until a definite breeding record for this continent can be estab- 

 lished. Atlantic coast records are mostly in fall and winter, from 

 October 20, 1899 (Halifax, Massachusetts) to March 25, 1899 (Keuka 

 Lake, New York) . Interior records are mostly in spring, from March 

 23, 1896 (English Lake, Indiana), to April 18, 1904 (Sandusky, Ohio). 

 Greenland records fall between September 29, 1900, and December 

 17, 1900. The Pacific coast dates are mostly in December and 

 February. The Alaska dates are, Unalaska, October 12, 1871, and 

 Fribilof Islands, May 27, 1872 and April 30, 1911. Probably two 

 migration routes reach the United States, one through Greenland to 

 the Atlantic coast and one through the Aleutian Islands to the Paci- 

 fic coast. Accidental in Spitsbergen, the Azores, Madeira, Canary 

 and Marshall Islands. 



Egg (Zafes.- -Iceland: Twenty records, May 12 to June 21; ten 

 records. May 25 to June 15. 



MABECA AMERICANA (Gmelin.) 

 BALDPATE. 



HABITS. 



I have always thought that the proper name for this species is the 

 American widgeon, for it is certainly very closely related to and 

 much resembles in many ways its European relative. The name 

 widgeon is applied by gunners to various species of fresh-water ducks 

 which they can not recognize, especially to the females; gadwalls, 

 pintails, and the present species seem to be very confusing to sports- 

 men and are usually all lumped together as " widgeons." This name 

 does well enough in the fall and winter, when associated with other 

 species, but when seen in the spring, in the full glory of its nuptial 

 plumage, with its glistening white crown, the name baldpate seems 

 more appropriate; the name baldpate always suggests to my mind 

 the mated pairs of the handsome ducks that I have so often seen 

 swimming in these little ponds or streams of the western plains or 

 springing into the air, if we drove too near, with a great display of 

 their striking color patterns. 



Sj^ring. — The baldpate is not one of the earliest migrants; the ice 

 has long since disappeared and spring is well under way before it 

 starts, and many of the birds do not arrive in their breeding grounds 

 in the Northern States until the latter part of May. Turner (1886) 

 says of its arrival at St. Michael, Alaska: 



It arrives about the 25th oi" May or even later. It is not at all gregarious, being 

 found solitary or in pairs. It frequents the marshes, preferably those which are 

 overflowed by the higher tides when it arrives. As soon as the season is advanced, 

 the greater part of the snow is gone, and the little rivulets are full of muddy water, 

 they resort to these places for food. They seem to delight in shoveling among the 



