138 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



speed without its feet becomiug entangled. In the water also 

 it moves with great ease and rapidity, and on the wing it is 

 one of the swiftest of its tribe. It rises from the water with a. 

 single spring, and so swiftly that it can only be hit by a verj^ 

 expert marksman; and it also dives readily when wounded. 

 This is a fresh-water bird, and it is very rarely met with near 

 the sea. Its migrations are over the land, and not along the 

 sea-shore." ( Water Birds of North America.) 



A nest containing ten eggs was found by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, 

 near Ft. Garland, Colorado, under a sage-bush, perhaps thirty 

 feet from the water's edge. A deep hollow had been scooped in 

 tfee sand, and lined warmly with fine grass and down, evidently 

 taken from the bird's own breast, which was plucked ueai-ly bare. 

 The eggs were of a pale yellowish color, aud averaged 1.81 in 

 length by 1.31 in diameter. 



Subgenus Chaulelasmus Gray. 



Chaulelasmus Geay, 1838, 56. Type, Anas strepera Linn. 



Chanliodus Swains, F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 440. Type, Anas streuera Linn. (Not of Bloch, 

 1801.) 



Uhanliudes Etton, Mon. Anat. 1838, 43. Same type. {Not of Lateeille, 1798.) 



SuBGEN. Chak. Oulmen shorter than middle toe, without olaw: distance from an- 

 terior border of nostril to tip of upper mandible more than three times the distance 

 from the same point to the nearest loral feathers; lamolkc very fine and numerous. 

 more than 30 being visible from the outside; tail-feathers 16. 



But two species of this subgenus are known; the common and 

 widely diffused A. strejx'ra and the more recently discovered 

 A. couesi (Streets) of Washington Island, in the South Pacific 

 Ocean. The latter is very similar to A. strepera, having the 

 same form and essentially the same coloration, but is much 

 smaller, with several differences in plumage. The sides are white, 

 coarsely spotted with grayish, instead of finely undulated with 

 the same, as is the case with the adult male of ^1. strepera; 

 but this may be owing to a difference of age, the type of A. 

 couesi being an immature bird. 



