River and Pond Ducks 



bufF; breast and sides buff, thickly spotted with blacl<, 

 but the female throughout lacks the beautiful waves, scales, 

 and crescent-shaped marks that adorn her mate. Under- 

 neath, including under tail-coverts and wing-linings, white. 

 Little or no chestnut on wings ; speculum or wing-patch 

 white and gray. Bill dusky, blotched with orange, imma- 

 ture birds resemble the mother. 



Ra7ige — Cosmopolitan; nests in North America, from the middle 

 states northward to the fur countries, but chiefly within 

 United States limits. Most abundant in Mississippi Valley 

 region and west; also northward to the Saskatchewan. 



Season — Winter resident south of Virginia and southern Illinois; 

 winter visitor, most abundant in spring and autumn migra- 

 tions, north of Washington. 



This beautiful species, first discovered by Wilson, on the 

 shores of Seneca Lake, New York, keeps close by fresh water, 

 showing no liking whatever for the sea as the black duck does. 

 In the Atlantic states the gadwall is rare, except as a migratory 

 visitor inland, while in the sloughs of the Mississippi Valley, 

 Florida, and the Gulf states, it is abundant in favored spots that 

 other ducks frequent when the wild rice and field-corn ripen, and 

 that local sportsmen also revel in. The gadwall's flesh is par- 

 ticularly fine; its mixed diet of grain and small aquatic animal 

 food imparting a gamy flavor to it that epicures appreciate. 



As this duck is very shy and full of fear, it dozes most of its 

 time away when the sun is high, securely hidden in the tall 

 sedges that line the marshy lake or quiet stream ; and emerging 

 at twilight to feed, to disport itself with its companions, to lift 

 up its voice in happy bubblings and quacks, to fly from lake to 

 lake in wedge-shaped companies, it pursues, under cover of par- 

 tial or even total darkness, the round of pleasures and duties cus- 

 tomary among all the duck tribe. In nesting and other habits as 

 well, the gadwall so closely resembles the mallard that a de- 

 scription of them would be merely a repetition. Even its voice 

 is very like the mallard's, although the quack is more frequently 

 repeated; but Gesner must have discovered some unusually 

 shrill, high-pitched notes in it when he added strepera to the 

 bird's name. 



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