l^IFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 107 



Mr. Douglas C. Mabbott (1920) says of its food: 



Of the contents of 653 green-winged teal stomachs examined, more than nine- 

 tenths (90.67 per cent) consisted of vegetable matter. By far the largest item of 

 food contributed by any one family of plants came from the sedges, and this amounted 

 to nearly two-fifths (38.82 per cent) of the total food. Next to the sedges, pondweeds 

 are the favorite food supply, contributing 11.52 per cent, while grasses follow closely 

 with 11; then smartweeds, 5.25; algae, 4.63; duckweeds, 1.9; water milfoils, 1.11; 

 arrow grass, 0.91; and burreed, 0.85 per cent. The remaining 14.68 per cent is made 

 up of a great number of smaller items. 



Insects formed 4.57 per cent of the total food of the greeu-winged teal, the re- 

 mainder of the animal food consisting of mollusks, 3.59 per cent; crustaceans, 0.92; 

 and miscellaneous, 0.25; the total amounting to 9.33 per cent. 



Behavior. — Nearly every writer on American ornitliology lias com- 

 mented on the swiftness of flight of the green-winged teal, in which 

 it certainly excels. In proportion to its size, and perhaps actually, 

 it is the swiftest of the ducks, though its diminutive size might lead 

 to an overestimate of its speed. It has been credited with a sj^eed 

 of 160 miles an hour, but this is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Mr. 

 J. H. Bowles (1909) has well described its flight, as follows: 



Moving at a rate of certainly not less than 100 miles an hour, the evolutions of a large 

 flock of these birds are truly startling. They fly in such close order that one would 

 think their wings must interfere, even on a straight course; yet of a sudden the 

 whole flock will turn at a right angle, or wheel and twist as if it were one bird. The 

 looker-on can only wonder what the signal may be which is given and obeyed to such 

 perfection, for the least hesitation or mistake on the part of a single bird would result 

 in death or a broken wing to a score. 



On land this pretty little teal is quite at home; it walks gracefully 

 and easily and it can run quite swiftly. It often travels long distances 

 on foot in search of food or when moving from one pond to another; 

 in making such overland journeys it sometimes moves in a compact 

 flock, giving the pothunter a chance for a raking shot. In the water 

 it swims easily and swiftly. Unlike most of the surface-feeding ducks 

 it is an expert diver and can swim for a long distance under water 

 to reach some needed shelter, where it can hide with only its head 

 or its bill exposed. A wounded bird often escapes in this way and 

 seems to have vanished. Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson (1919) — 



recalls on one occasion seeing a wounded green-winged teal fall, which, on striking 

 the water, instantly dived. After watching a few minutes for it to reappear, he 

 waded out to the point wliere it had disappeared and found the bird about 2 feet 

 beneath the surface, clinging with its bill to a water plant. 



The note of the male greenwing is a short mellow whistle or twitter- 

 ing call and that of the female a faint reproduction of the quack of 

 the mallard. Mr. Aretas A. Saunders writes me that the note of 

 the male — 



is a high-pilcheJ, short, staccato whistle, and is accompanied by a lower-pitched 

 trilled note, uttered leas fre<iuentl y. The eilect of this note, when repeatt d irequently, 



