1919 ] Kennard, New Subspecies of Blue-winged Teal. 457 



writing of the northern bird, says, "The Blue-winged Teal stays 

 with us until about the first of April, and sometimes as late as 

 May 1st." 



With regard to the Southern Teal, it is difficult to say what pro- 

 portion pass the winter on their breeding grounds or how many of 

 them migrate. They are common during the winter, according to 

 my own observations, in Iberia, Vermilion and Cameron Parishes, 

 and, presumably, all along the Louisiana coastal marshes. Several 

 specimens have been taken in Florida, where the bird may breed, 

 and even as far east as the Isle of Pines and Andros Island. They 

 have been taken in Texas and in Mexico, where they undoubtedly 

 breed, and as far south as Costa Rica; and I have seen two speci- 

 mens from Arizona and one from Lower California. 



Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes writes of seeing them at Waldo, Texas, 

 April 19, 1901, when he made a sketch of a specimen; and again in 

 Mexico, "south of Tampico in the state of Tamaulipas, between 

 April 18th and 21st, 1910," when he saw a flock of seventeen males, 

 several of which were shot, but which unfortunately, owing to press 

 of other work, were not made up into skins. 



The Southern Teal starts nesting in Louisiana early in March, 

 for Mr. Mcllhenny writes, under date of April 3, 1919, "Blue- 

 winged Teal are now nesting here, and there are a number of broods 

 of young already hatched," and Mr. Worthen writes, " In regard to 

 the breeding season of the Southern Blue-winged Teal, from what 

 I know and what I can learn from the natives here who hunt, they 

 have found the nest as early as the first of March. ... I have found 

 but one nest, and that was last April. I killed the male bird, and he 

 was a fine specimen, with white running down the back of his head." 



During the past year I have examined specimens in several col- 

 lections, and am in receipt of data from a number of others scat- 

 tered throughout the United States and Canada. Of the Teal 

 examined, one hundred and thirty-eight were adult males in nuptial 

 plumage, of which fifty-one were without doubt northern breeding 

 birds, taken actually on the breeding ground or on the way there. 

 Of these, twelve, taken in various places from North Carolina and 

 Kansas to Manitoba, showed signs of southern blood, seven with 

 the markings showing fairly distinctly, and five with the markings 

 very faint. This intergradation, however, is only what should 



