GADWALL 



287 



and its kindred the gadwall is distinguished by features of merely 

 secondary importance ; and it may be questioned whether its separation 

 as a distinct genus is justifiable. The beak, for instance, although 

 relatively smaller, is of the same shape as in the mallard, but has the 

 transverse plates somewhat more developed and projecting slightl}' 

 beyond its edges, while the wing " speculum " is black and white in 

 place of metallic, and there are only sixteen feathers in the tail. The 

 genus is known solely by the present bird and a species from a North 

 American island. Like the mallard, the gadwall has a circumpolar 

 distribution, but in neither hemisphere does its breeding-range extend 



GADWALL. 



very far north, being limited in the Old World by Iceland and the 

 southern districts of Sweden, and by about the same line of latitude in 

 America. In the latter continent it wanders in winter as far south as 

 Mexico and the Antilles, and its breeding-range in Europe includes 

 Spain, whence it extends through central and northern Europe to 

 Turkestan and eastern Siberia. In winter the Asiatic birds visit 

 northern India, upper Burma, and China ; while many of those 

 inhabiting the colder parts of Europe betake themselves at that season 

 to northern Africa, where some of them follow the valley of the Nile 

 as far into the interior as Nubia. In northern India, where they may 

 be met with in large or small flocks on inland waters of all descriptions, 

 gadwall make their appearance in October and depart northwards in 



