obZ Allen, Pattern Development in Teal. [bet" 



winged Teal has developed no further. In the Southern Teal, 

 however, (Fig. 3) a further restriction of the ear patch has taken 

 place, producing a complete line of separation between it and the 

 crown patch, so that a white superciliary line results from the 

 failure of these two patches to develop pigment at their common 

 border; and in those individuals that show a white nuchal area, 

 this restriction has involved also the posterior extension of the 

 ear patches of opposite sides so that a white streak results when 

 they fail to meet along the median line of the neck. Obviously 

 this condition, with its more complex pattern, represents a more 

 highly evolved plumage than that of the Common Blue-winged 

 Teal. It is, therefore, not unexpected that it should occur only 

 in the most highly developed or nuptial plumage, at the time 

 when the bodily vigor is most intense. It may be well to add here 

 that the presence of albinistic or white areas does not imply, as 

 many suppose, an impaired bodily vigor, but merely a specialized 

 condition of the factor producing pigment in the epidermis. The 

 fact that the amount of white in the pattern of many natural 

 species is very variable, indicates, I presume, that its areal develop- 

 ment has not come under a strong selective force so that the bound- 

 aries of the white areas have not become fixed. That the white 

 head-marking of the Southern Teal is of a fairly definite nature, 

 may show, conversely, that it has become a factor in this bird's 

 welfare and is tending to be symmetrically developed as part of 

 a definite pattern. For this reason the extension of the usual 

 white area is of value as a diagnostic mark of the more southerly 

 breeding Teal. 



On my expressing to Mr. Kennard an interest in this bird, he 

 has kindly called my attention to an observation of Mr. Stanley 

 C. Arthur (since published in 'The Auk') who has for three years 

 past kept in confinement in the flying cage of the Audubon Park, 

 New Orleans, one of these Southern Teal, showing the character- 

 istic "necktie" marking. In the spring following its capture, 

 this drake molted into the nuptial plumage, but the white super- 

 ciliary line and nape patch seemed less definitely white than Mr. 

 Arthur's recollection of them the year before. In the next year, 

 however, when the bird again assumed its spring plumage, neither 

 the white line nor the white nape patch was apparent. The bird's 



