LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. Ill 



Casual records. — Accidental in Bermuda (October 10, 1874, No- 

 vember, 1874, and fall of 1875), southern Greenland (Julianshaab, 

 Godthaab, etc.), Great Britain (Hampshire about 1840, Yorkshire, 

 November, 1851, and Devonshire. November 23, 1879), Hawaiian 

 Islands, and Japan. 



Egg dates. — Alaska and Arctic America: Four records, June 4, 10, 

 18 and July 1. Saskatchewan and Alberta: Tliirteen records, May 

 21 to June 21; seven records, May 25 to June 17. Colorado and 

 Utah: Twenty-five records, May 6 to August 17; thirteen records. 

 May 17 to June 22. 



QUERQUEDULA DISCORS (Linnaeus^. 



BLTTE-WINGED TEAL. 



HABITS. 



Spring. — Not until spring is well advanced and really hot weather 

 has come in its winter haunts does this tender warm-weather bird 

 decide to leave the sunny glades of Florida and the bayous of Louis- 

 iana, where it has spent the winter or early spring, dabbling in the 

 shallow, muddy pools, and marshes. The early migrants are proba- 

 bly hardier individuals that have wintered farther north, but the 

 later migrants linger in the Gulf States through April and even into 

 May. Dr. F. Henry Yorke (1899) designates three distinct spring 

 flights, as follows: 



The first issue of this, our tendereet, duck arrives in latitude 37° from March 25 

 to April 1, staying about six or eight dajs. The second follows a few days after the 

 first has departed nortliward, up to aud past the boundary line. A short period 

 elapses when they likewise travel north to the southern part of Minnesota and its 

 parallel. The third soon follows, and stays an indefinite period, working up tlirough 

 Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and eastward about the last week in April if the weathe 

 permits, the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi, witli their tributaries, furnishing the 

 fly ways. 



Dr. p. L. Hatch (1892) thus describes the arrival of this species 

 in Minnesota: 



No other species of the ducks is so cautious upon its arrival as the blue- winged 

 teal, a trait by whicli the old hunter determines its identity at once. In parties of 8 to 

 10 or a dozen they will circle around, descending again and again onl\' to rise again and 

 go farther up or lower down the stream to repeat the same demonstrations of indecision, 

 many times over, and just as unexpectedly they suddenly drop out of sight between 

 the treeless banks. They are, as a general thing, several days later in their spring 

 arrivals, and as much earlier than the greenwings in autumn. This is not true in 

 every migration, for I have once; or twice Icnown tliem to come a little before the 

 other, and several times simultaneousl\'; but in my observations, extending over 

 many years in succession, it has proved a noticeable cljaracteristic in its migi-ations. 

 They are seldom seen on the large clear lakes: but on small ponds, mud flats, and 

 sluggish streams where various pondweeds and aquatic roots afford in abundance 

 its favorite vegetalile food. 



