RIVER DUCKS 85 



The birds of this race enter Maine about the first of October, 

 and are probably of general occurrence throughout the State. 

 They are commonest along the coast where scattered flocks, 

 containing often many individuals, remain locally through the 

 winter, beginning to leave in late March or early April. Their 

 nests and eggs seem to be unknown, but are not likely to differ 

 much from the closely related Black Duck. Two individuals 

 which were killed in winter on the Penobscot River near 

 Bucksport had been feeding on a peculiar red berry about 

 eight millimeters in diameter, containing much seed and little 

 pulp. The birds were literally crammed with these fruit which 

 were unknown to me and which have never been identified but 

 which were most certainly not any common fruit in Maine or 

 I would have known them.* 



Genus CHAULELASMUS Bonaparte. 



135. Chaulelasmus streperus (lAnn.^. Gadwall; Gray Duck. 



Plumage of adult male: head and neck pale brownish, buffy at sides, 

 thickly sprinkled with black ; breast and neck black, each feather centrally 

 spotted and bordered with white ; sides, back and scapulars with wavy mark- 

 ings of slate and white ; middle wing coverts chestnut ; speculum white, the 

 lower feathers ashy and white tipped ; rump and tail coverts black, belly 

 whitish. Plumage of adult female : belly, lower breast and under tail coverts 

 white ; upper breast and sides yellowish buify, thickly mixed with black ; 

 above chiefly brownish dusky, spotted and barred with buffy ; head and neck 

 longitudinally streaked with brownish dusky and buffy ; speculum ashy gray 

 and white ; chestnut of wing coverts restricted or absent. Immature 

 plumage : similar to female. Wing 10.00 to 11.00 ; culmen 1.68 ; tarsus 1.57. 



Geog. Dist. — Nearly cosmopolitan : breeds on the Atlantic coast of America 

 at Anticosti, and in the interior from Kansas northward ; in California 

 formerly said to have nested near Los Angeles, thence locally northward ; 

 winters from Virginia to Florida and Texas. 



County Records. — Cumberland: two specimens April 29, 1879, (Smith, 

 F. & S. 20, p. 125) ; one shot at Falmouth by John Whitney in the fall of 

 1903 and in the possession of T. A. James, (Lord). Sagadahoc; a female 

 taken October 27, 1904, and October 28 and 29 a number were seen, fifteen 

 or more in all, (Noble, J. M. O. S. 1905, p. 12). Washington ; accidental, 

 (Boardman). 



* Since writing this I have been able to positively identify the fruit as that of Lepargyraea 

 Catiadensis Nutt., a northern shrub not known from this particular region. 



