708 THE GADWALL. 
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“Similar to winter male, but colors duller, crown dusky, rump and breast tinged 
with rusty, and underparts more spotted with dusky” (Ridgway). Adult female: 
“Head and throat as in the male: back fuscous margined with buffy; breast and 
sides ochraceous buffy, thickly spotted with blackish; belly and under tail-coverts 
white, more or less thickly spotted with blackish; little or no chestnut on wing- 
coverts; speculum ashy gray and white; axillars and under wing-coverts pure 
white” (Chapman). Length 19,00-22.00 (482.6-558.8) ; wing 10.60 (269.2) ; tail 
4.50 (114.3); bill 1.67 (42.4); tarsus 1.60 (40.6). Female smaller. 
Recognition Marks.—Something under Mallard size; white speculum dis- 
tinctive; crissum (of male) abruptly black. 
Nesting.—NVest: on the ground near water, of grasses, lined with feathers. 
Eggs: 8-12, pale buffy or clay-colored. Av. size, 2.09 1.57 (53.1 X 39.9). 
Season: c. June 10; one brood. 
General Range.—Nearly cosmopolitan. In North America breeds chiefly 
within the United States. 
Range in Washington.—Little known on Puget Sound; common and well 
distributed in the interior, where breeding. 
Authorities.—Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 783. C&S. 
Lt) Rh. B: E. 
Specimens.—l’rovy. 
THERE is a tradition, nearly universal, that the Gadwall is not a common 
bird. There is ground for this judgment, but the impression of scarcity is 
strengthened by the fact that the birds are of rather sober appearance at best, 
that they do nothing whatever out of the ordinary, and that they do not 
largely participate in the northern migrations. In our own State, the breeding 
population probably exceeds the number of the migrants crossing our northern 
borders; and at that, is chiefly confined to a few lakes in the northern portion 
of the East-side. 
In habits the Gadwall most nearly resembles the Mallard. Like that bird 
it frequents the borders of marshes and weed-grown streams where it feeds 
upon the leaves and roots of aquatic plants, which it obtains both by diving 
and dabbling. It is not averse to varying its diet by occasional insects and 
small fish, or it may resort to stubble-fields, by night, to obtain its share of the 
fallen grain. The Gadwall is at all times a clean feeder, and its flesh is highly 
prized for the table. 
The nesting of the Gadwall is later than that of the Mallard, taking place 
with us not earlier than June. Any weed-grown field or grassy stretch within 
a hundred yards of water is suitable, and the female displays great strategy in 
stealing to her eggs. A mere depression in the ground, well sheltered by over- 
arching vegetation, is all the bird asks at the outset, but as the deposition of 
eggs progresses, the duck adds grasses and soft vegetable materials of various 
sorts, until quite a respectable accumulation results. When the set is nearly 
complete, an abundance of dark gray down is plucked from the bird’s breast 
and distributed not only under the eggs but along the sides of the nest, so that 
