° 1919 J Oberholser, Notes on North American Birds. 81 



NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 

 VII. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



In continuation of previous papers l on North American birds, 

 notes on six species are here offered. These belong to the following 

 families: Anatidce, Aquilidoe, Laridce, Corvidoe, and Mniotiltidoe. 



Nettion carolinense (Gmelin). 



This well-known Teal has recently been treated as a subspecies 

 of the common Teal of Europe (Nettion crecca). 2 Our American 

 Nettion carolinense in many respects very much resembles the 

 P^uropean Teal, and, so far as we are able to determine, is, in the 

 female, practically indistinguishable. The male of Nettion caro- 

 linense, however, differs from the same sex of Nettion crecca in 

 the possession of a distinct, usually broad, bar on the side of the 

 breast, and by the entire lack of white on the scapulars, both inner 

 and outer webs. The barring of the back and flanks is much finer 

 and less conspicuous, but this, although diagnostic, is not so 

 trenchant as the two other characters just mentioned. In all the 

 large series of these two birds that we have examined we have not 

 seen a male which showed any intergradation in the white bar on 

 the side of the breast or in the white of the scapulars. While it is, 

 of course, true that the great similarity of color pattern and of 

 coloration, to say nothing of osteological resemblances, indicates 

 clearly that both these birds descended from a common ancestor, 

 and that at no very remote period were probably connected by 

 either individual variation or geographic intermediates, and thus 



1 For the other papers in this series, cf. 'The Auk,' XXXIV, April, 1917, pp. 191-196; 

 XXXIV, July, 1917, pp. 321-329; XXXIV, October, 1917, pp. 465-470; XXXV, January, 

 1918, pp. 62-65; XXXV, April, 1918, pp. 185-187; and XXXV, October, 1918, pp. 463- 

 467. 



2 Committee British Ornithologists' Union, List British Birds, ed. 2, 1915, p. 171. 



