OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 373 



Family ANATID^]. Genus QUERQUEDULA. 



Subfamily 



BLUE-WINGED QARQANEY. 



QUEEQUEDULA DISCOES (Linnceus). 



Anas discors, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 205 (1766) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 551 

 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 164 (1894) ; Seebohm, Col 

 Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 42 (1896). 



Querquedula discors (Linn.), Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 392 (1885) ; Salvadori, Cat. 

 B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 300 (1895) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 294 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Blue-winged Garganey 

 is another dubious "British" species which we include in this volume with 

 considerable hesitation. Its claim to rank as "British" rests on a single 

 occurrence, and even about this there has been considerable confusion. The 

 late Mr. Gray, in his Birds of the West of Scotland, states that the example 

 in question was killed in January, 1863 ; but Mr. Gibson, in recording the 

 same specimen in the Naturalist for 1858, avers that it was obtained "a few 

 weeks ago " in that year. The latter date appears to be the correct one. This 

 example, a male, was obtained in Dumfriesshire by a Mr. Shaw. It passed through 

 the hands of a local bird-stuffer into the collection of Sir William Jardine, and 

 is now in the Edinburgh Museum. Other alleged occurrences have been 

 recorded, but in every case identification has been found to be wrong. It has 

 once been recorded from Continental Europe an adult male shot in Denmark in 

 April, 1886. Foreign: Central and southern Nearctic region, more southerly in 

 winter ; extreme northern limits of Neotropical region in winter. It breeds from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, south of lat. 60, but becomes more local west of the 

 Eocky Mountains. Southwards its breeding range extends to Florida and 

 Mexico as far as the northern tropic. The northern birds pass south in autumn, 

 abnormally visiting the Bermudas, and winter in Mexico, the West Indies, 

 and the northern portions of Central America. 



Allied forms. Querquedula circia, a British species, and dealt with fully 

 in the preceding chapter. Q. cyanoptera, an inhabitant of the Nearctic region. 

 Distinguished from the Blue-winged Garganey by its uniform chestnut head 

 and neck. 



