THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 209 



I cannot detect any vigilance whatever on their part. They 

 are too far off for a shot, and this I do not particularly 

 regret, for I am not a pot-hunter, nor a mere anatomic nat- 

 uralist. I simply like to know what transpires in such remote 

 and quiet nooks, and how these elegant little Ducks behave 

 in their undisturbed haunts. I note the elegant form and deli- 

 cately-penciled coloring of the males in this little flock of Blue- 

 winged Teals. One of the smallest of our Ducks, it is only 16 

 inches long and 31 in extent of wings, with small head and 

 bill and a slender neck; his crown, with a narrow line down 

 the hind neck is black; there is a white crescent in front of the 

 eye; the head is a purplish glossy drab; the back and scapulars 

 deep dusky, with concentric wavy lines and tips of reddish; 

 back deep dusky, edged with drab; longer scapulars and the 

 tertiaries, greenish-black with medium line of red; wing- 

 coverts ultra-marine, with a line of white between them and 

 the glossy green secondaries forming the speculum; the 

 dusky tail has a white spot on each side, with the under-^ 

 coverts black; breast and under parts reddish, elegantly 

 spotted with black. The female, about an inch shorter 

 than the male, has the plumage generally dark brown, mar- 

 gined with brownish-white; the cheeks and throat whitish; 

 wing-coverts not quite so brightly ultra-marine as in the 

 male; the dusky-brown feathers of the under parts have a 

 brownish-white streak or spot in the center. The female 

 does not have the white crescent in front of the eye. The 

 young are like the female, and the old males return in the 

 fall migrations without the sexual markings. 



Lingering with us even into May, and returning early in 

 September, this Teal is one of the last of all the migratory 

 Ducks to leave us, and about the first to come back from its 

 more northerly breeding grounds. Though extending far 

 north, even to Alaska, in the breeding season, they have 

 14 



