Vol. XXX VII 



1919 



Kennard, New Subspecies of Blue-winged Teal. 459 



centic patch in front of the eye is continued in a thin white line 

 over the eye down to a conspicuous nuchal patch. The feathers 

 along the lower side of the line have their upper halves white 

 throughout their entire length, while the feathers along the upper 

 side of the line have their lower halves white, thus accounting for 

 the thinness of the line. The feathers of the nuchal patch are 

 variegated, some of them part white, and some of them wholly 

 white, and the markings on this bird should remain distinct until 

 the moult into the eclipse plumage. According, however, to my 

 data, and according to Mr. Mcllhenny's observations also, only 

 about one in six or seven of the Southern Teal is so heavily marked. 

 In the majority of cases the diagnostic markings are extremely 

 evanescent, many of the feathers having white tips only, which 

 seem to wear away, until in June, and before the moult into the 

 eclipse plumage takes place, nothing may remain of these markings 

 but a few very worn white-tipped feathers at the nape. 



While, personally, I am not quite in sympathy with all the sub- 

 specific separations in which some of our systematic ornithologists 

 at present indulge, it appears to me that the evidence collected 

 would seem to show that the Southern Teal, conspicuously marked 

 as it is, and breeding as it does in a range well separated from its 

 northern cousins, is certainly worthy of sub-specific separation, 

 and I suggest that, with due acknowledgment to Mr. Mcllhenny, 

 who seems to have been the first to accord the bird its proper recog- 

 nition, we give it a descriptive name, as follows: 



Querquedula discors albinucha subsp. now — Southern* Teal. 



Type. — From Grand Chenier, Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Adult male. 

 Collection of F. H. Kennard, April 2, 1916. 



Characters. — Similar to Querquedula discors discors, except that in the 

 nuptial plumage of the male, the crescentic white patch in front of the eye 

 is continued over the eye in a thin superciliary line down to the nape, where 

 it meets the line from the opposite side to form a white nuchal patch. 



Range. — Breeds commonly in Louisiana, and possibly as far east as 

 Florida, also, undoubtedly, in Texas and Mexico, and possibly as far west 

 as Arizona and Lower California. In winter it has been taken in the 

 Antilles and as far south as Costa Rica. 



At first thought it seems odd that a bird so well marked as this 

 should have escaped notice for so many years; but when one takes 



