498* ORNITHOLOGY 1ND OOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Male. Head and neck brownish-white, each feather spotted with dusky ; the 

 top of head tinged with reddish; lower part of neck, with forepart of breast and 

 back, blackish, with concentric narrow bars of white, giving a scaled appearance to 

 the feathers; interscapular region, outermost scapulars, and sides of the body, finely 

 waved transversely with black and white; middle wing coverts chestnut, the 

 greater velvet-black, succeeded by a pure-white speculum, bordered externally by 

 hoary-gray, succeeded by black ; crissum and upper tail coverts black ; longest ter- 

 tials hoary plumbeous-gray; innermost scapulars with a reddish tinge; inside of 

 wing and axillars pure-white; bill black; iris hazel. 



Female. With the bill dusky, edged with reddish ; wing somewhat like that of 

 the male, but with the chestnut-red more restricted. 



Length, twenty-two inches ; wing, ten and fifty one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and 

 sixty-four one-hundredths; commissure, two and four one-hundredths inches. 



The Gadwall is a rare autumnal visitor in New England, 

 and is seldom seen in the spring as it is passing to its 

 northern breeding-places. Audubon, in describing its habits, 

 says, 



" This species dives well on occasion, especially on being 

 wounded. At the appearance of danger, it rises on wing 

 whether from the ground or from the water at a single 

 spring, in the manner of the Mallard ; and, like it also, 

 ascends almost perpendicularly for several yards, after 

 which it moves off in a direct course with great celerity. I 

 have never seen it dive on the flash of the gun ; but, when 

 approached, it always swims to the opposite part of the 

 pond, and, when the danger increases, flies off. On being 

 wounded, it sometimes, by diving, makes its escape among 

 the grass, where it squats, and remains concealed. It walks 

 with ease, and prettily, often making incursions upon the 

 land, when the ponds are not surrounded by trees, for 

 the purpose of searching, for food. It nibbles the tender 

 shoots and blades of grasses with apparent pleasure ; and 

 will feed on beech-nuts, acorns, and seeds of all kinds of 

 gramineae, as well as on tadpoles, small fishes, and leeches. 

 After rain, it alights in cornfields, like the Mallard, and 

 picks up the scattered grains of maize." 



The eggs of this species are from eight to twelve in num- 

 ber. Their color is a pale-drab, with a slight olivaceous tint: 



