88 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



now in my possession. They measure, 1.75 x 1.35, 1.75 x 1.35, 

 1.75 X 1.35, 1.74 X 1.30, 1.81 x 1.31, 1.76 x 1.32. The nest 

 is composed of grass and plant stems, lined with down and 

 feathers, and is situated usually on the ground in a marsh or 

 meadow not far from the water. 



^ 139. Nettion carolinensis (Gmel.). Green-winged Teal. 



Plumage of adult male : a white bar on breast in front of bend of wing ; 

 chin black ; a metallic green patch from eyes backward, and this bordered 

 below by pale buff line ; head and neck otherwise chestnut rufous ; upper 

 back and lower neck, scapulars, sides and flanks waved with black and white ; 

 wing coverts brownish gray, tipped with huffy ; under tail coverts black in 

 middle and huffy at sides ; lower back grayish fuscous ; speculum metallic 

 green with lower feathers black, white-tipped. Plumage of adult and imma- 

 ture females : throat and sides of neck white, black spotted ; top of head 

 brownish fuscous, edged with cinnamon ; upper parts general fuscous, more 

 or less edged and barred on the feathers with paler brown and grayish ; 

 breast and sides barred with dark and washed with rufous ; belly and under 

 tail coverts white, sometimes spotted with dark; wing much as in male. 

 Immature male plumage : differs from adult female in that the belly and 

 sides are white, unmarked. Wing 6.30 to 7.50 ; culmen 1.50 ; tarsus 1.30. 



Geog. Dist. — North America, breeding from North Dakota, Minnesota and 

 New Brunswick northward ; winters from Virginia southward to Honduras 

 and Cuba. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; fairly common migrant, (Johnson). 

 Cumberland: common, (Brock). Hancock ; rare, (Dorr). Kennebec; (Dill). 

 Knox; rare migrant, (Rackliff). Oxford; common, (Nash). Penobscot; 

 rare, in fall, (Knight). Sagadahoc; very few spring and fall, (Spinney). 

 Somerset ; not common migrant, (Morrell). Waldo : spring and fall migrant, 

 rare, (Knight). Washington; not common, (Boardman). 



Though of general occurrence along the coast in fall migration 

 the species is usually in rather limited numbers save locally 

 during some years. Inland about ponds and streams a few 

 may be expected in the fall, but seemingly it is not noted inland 

 in spring, and does not breed with us. Six to fifteen buffy 

 white eggs are laid in a nest on the ground near some slough 

 or in a meadow. Ten eggs from Benson County, North Dakota 

 May 28, 1901, measure 1.72 x 1.28, 1.72 x 1.29, 1.72 x 1.31, 

 1.70 X 1.32, 1.72 X 1.30, 1.72 x 1.30, 1.77 x 1.29, 1.77 x 1.28, 

 1.69 X 1.31, 1.76 X 1.36. These eggs were well advanced in 



