569 



CHAULELASMUS STREPERUS (Gray). 



THE GADWALL : GRAY DUCK. 



Specific Character. — Adult, male : Ground colour of the head and neck pale 

 brown or brownish white, thickly speckled with black ; on the pileum the brown 

 deeper and more uniform, and the specks obsolete ; on the occiput when present 

 they incline to the form of transverse bars. Jugulum marked with greatly curved 

 bars or crescents of white and black, the bars of the latter wider. Lateral por- 

 tions of the body beneath, back and scapulars finely undulated in curved trans- 

 verse lines with slate colour and white. Many of the longer scapulars plain 

 brownish gray broadly edged with a lighter more fulvous tint. Rump plain dull 

 slate. Tail coverts above and below intense opaque velvety black. Tail cinereous, 

 faintly edged with white. Middle rows of wing coverts bright chestnut, the 

 anterior coverts brownish gray, and the posterior ones deep black ; last rows deep 

 velvety black. Speculum immaculate pure white, the lower feathers cinereous, 

 some with black on the outer webs, narrowly tipped with white ; tertials plain 

 pale ash, the primaries a darker shade of the same. Bill bluish black. Iris 

 reddish hazel. Feet, dull orange-yellow ; claws, brownish black ; webs dusky. 

 Female much the same plumage. 



Total length, 19.22 inches; wing, 10.00 to 11.00 ; culmen, 1.60 ; width of bill, 

 .60 to .70; tarsus, 1.50 ; middle toe, 1.80. 



Habitat. — Nearly cosmopolitan, (Europe, Asia, Africa and North America), 

 temperate North America in general, breeding chiefly within the United States 

 and West Indies. The Gadwall or Gray-duck, like the other fresh water ducks, is 

 distributed pretty generally over North America, though it is nowhere very 

 plentiful. It is seen almost every autumn in Ontario. Its habits are much the 

 same as those of the Mallard. 



