No. 13.] BIRD NAMES. 37 



often scarcely discernible. Under parts of plumage pale buff, or 

 dull white, with obscure spots or freckles. Bill uniformly dusky. 

 Legs and feet bluish gray. 



Length twenty-two and a half to twenty-three inches : ex- 

 tent nearly that of drake. 



Young (both sexes). Closely resembling adult female. 



" Northern Hemisphere. In North America breeds from the 

 northern parts of the United States northward, and migrates 

 south to Cuba and Panama" (A. O. U. Check List). 



I have heard no local name applied from Calais, Me., to Bath, 

 though between these points I have interviewed many duckers. 

 The bird is certainly not common enough here to require often 

 a name of any kind, and it may be added that nowhere upon 

 our coast is the species so numerous as in the interior. From 

 Bath to the State of Connecticut the name GRAY DUCK (see 

 Nos. 6, 9) is usually given it (I find that I have thus lumped the 

 matter in notes relating to this portion of the coast), but no 

 other name has troubled me so much as this one. It can be ap- 

 propriately applied to many species, and is too comprehensive, 

 too adaptable a title to remain as unwaveringly attached to a 

 single species as do duck-names usually. It is very liable to be 

 brought into play when a grayish duck of any kind is shot that 

 the gunners are unfamiliar with. Though I have met the name 

 in a large majority of the places visited, I have only been able 

 to record its exact local use in a comparatively few instances. 

 Referring to its general application in New England to the 

 present species, Mr. Brewster writes (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, July, 

 1883) : " Much confusion has been caused by the assumption 

 that the Gray Duck (i. ?., Gadwall) of the books is the same with 

 the ' Gray Duck ' of New England gunners and sportsmen." I 

 have heard this name popularly applied to the species now in 

 hand, on the Niagara (see No. 6) ; in Connecticut, at Essex, Mil- 

 ford, and Stratford ; at Bellport, Long Island ; Washington, D. C. ; 

 and Alexandria, Ya. ; and very commonly in these localities, as 

 elsewhere, to designate only the females, and the males in gray 

 attire. Giraud savs, in his Birds of Long Island, 1844, referring 

 3* 



