DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: Family Anatidae [145] 



tail coverts black, base of tail with white patch on either side. Adult female: Crown 

 mainly dusky, rest of head and neck speckled and streaked with dusky; back dusky; 

 under parts gray, mottled with dusky; wing with lesser coverts blue, greater [coverts] 

 tipped with white, speculum greenish. Young: Belly white, wing without green." 

 (Bailey) Downy young: "In the downy young the colors of the upper parts vary from 

 'mummy brown' to 'Dresden brown,' darker on the crown and rump, lighter else- 

 where, the down being much darker basally; the under parts are 'maize yellow," 

 shaded locally with 'buff yellow,' due to the darker tips of the down; the sides of 

 the head are 'yellow ocher' or pale 'buckthorn brown' in young birds, but these 

 colors soon fade and all the colors grow paler as the young bird increases in size. 

 The color pattern of the head consists of a dark-brown central crown bordered on 

 each side by a broad superciliary stripe of yellow ocher, below which is a narrow 

 postocular stripe, a loral patch, and an auricular spot of dusky. On the back the 

 brown is broken by four large spots of yellowish, one on each side of the rump and 

 one on each scapular region." (Bent) Si%e: "Length 14.50-16.00, wing 7.00-7.50, 

 bill 1.40-1.65." (Bailey) Nest: A shallow depression in the ground or in the reeds, 

 well lined with fine grasses and down. More down is added as incubation advances 

 until eggs are well concealed when female leaves the nest. Eggs: 6 to 15, usually 

 10 to 12., dull white to creamy white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds mainly in central North America from central British 

 Columbia, Great Slave Lake, northern Saskatchewan and Ontario south to Louisiana, 

 Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Winters in southern States south to South 

 America. In Oregon: Regular but not common visitor to eastern Oregon; probably 

 breeds each year in small numbers. 



THE STRIKINGLY marked little Blue-winged Teal is primarily a bird of the 

 great interior section of the continent, being the most abundant breeding 

 duck of the upper Mississppi Valley. It is a beautiful and showy little 

 species, and it is to be regretted that it is not more common in the State. 

 It is a regular, but not common, summer resident of eastern Oregon and 

 has been listed from there in small numbers by most observers. It is 

 probable that many of the records given by casual observers for eastern 

 Oregon in reality referred to the Cinnamon Teal, as the conspicuous light- 

 blue patch on the wings is common to both species and not diagnostic 

 for the Blue-winged Teal, as is frequently assumed. 



Newberry (1857) credited it with being a common species in Oregon. 

 Bendire (1877) reported it from Camp Harney as a rare species, nonbreed- 

 ing. Various other early travelers listed it as found in eastern Oregon. 

 Willett (1919), while warden at Malheur Lake, reported it on June 13; 

 and various men stationed as wardens at Malheur and Klamath Lakes 

 have listed occasional individuals. Prill (192.2^) reported one nest with 

 eggs found May 2.5 in the Warner Valley. We have seen it in Lake, 

 Harney, and Klamath Counties more or less regularly during April, May, 

 and June. Our earliest record is April 18 (Klamath County); our latest, 

 June 1 6 (Harney County). Records for later dates would be difficult to 

 substantiate unless birds were taken, as in the eclipse plumage it is very 

 difficult to distinguish these birds in the field. There is one specimen in 

 the Gabrielson collection taken at Klamath Falls April 18, 1914, and 



