BALDPATE 183 



Baldpate 



Mareca americana 

 (ma-re-ka, a-mer-i-kan-a) 



Colour Plates Nos. 9 and 11. Downy Young No. 33. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Mareca, the Brazilian name of a kind of Teal; americana, Latinized form, 

 meaning of America. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Baldpate (sometimes shortened to baldy or bally); widgeon. 

 IN LOCAL USE: Baldcrown; baldface; bald-faced widgeon; baldhead; bald widgeon; 

 baldpate widgeon; bluebill; bluebill widgeon; California widgeon; canvasback; 

 diamond duck; French teal; grey duck (female); L-wing; Norwegian poacher; 

 southern widgeon; specklehead; wheatduck; whistler; whistlingdick; whistling duck; 

 whitebelly; whiteface; zin-zin. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head, with slight crest; forehead and crown, 

 pure white, sometimes faintly tinged with buffy; patch of glossy green from eye 

 extending around hind head; rest of head and neck, creamy to buffy, speckled 

 with black; chin, dusky; throat, dusky, or sometimes creamy, with very few mark- 

 ings; bill, narrow and much shorter than head, greyish blue, tip, extreme base 

 and lower mandible, black; eye, yellowish brown to dark brown. Body. Upper back 

 and scapulars, pinkish brown finely vermiculated with dusky; hind back, dusky grey, 

 rump, white, finely vermiculated with grey; chest and sides, purplish-pink, sides 

 finely vermiculated with dusky; breast and belly, white, sometimes suffused with 

 rusty; white patch on flanks at each side of tail; ieet, greyish blue, with dusky 

 webs. Tail, middle feathers, pointed, dark grey to dusky brown, others, silvery 

 grey, edged with white; upper coverts, glossy black, bordered with white on inner 

 webs, inner ones greyish, bordered with white; under coverts, black Wings. Lesser 

 coverts, brownish grey along forward edge of wing; middle and greater coverts, 

 white, greyish brown inwardly, the latter tipped with black; primaries, pale brown- 

 ish grey; secondaries, with speculum of glossy green shading into black behind, 

 and bordered with black in front and with white inwardly; tertials, lengthened, 

 black, with white edges, grey brown on inner webs; lining, pale ashy grey, without 

 mottling; axillars, white, sometimes faintly flecked with grey. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The moult into the eclipse plumage begins in June and 

 lasts through July, being complete in August. The full-plumaged wing is re- 

 newed. In this plumage the male closely resembles the female except for the wings. 



AUTUMN PLUMAGE: In early autumn the male commences a continuous moult 

 out of the female-like plumage of the eclipse into the full winter plumage. The 

 wing is as in winter plumage. In the early stages of the moult the adult male can 

 be recognized by the appearance of some of the new, green feathers of winter 

 plumage on the head, and a sprinkling of purplish-pink ones on the chest, and by 

 the first new, vermiculated, pinkish-brown feathers on back and scapulars. During 

 October, the pinkish-brown, vermiculated plumage of the upper body is gradually 



