198 RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



Green- Winged Teal 



Nettion carolinense 



(Anas crecca carolinensis, of Peters) 



(net-i-on, ka-ro-li-nen-se; d-nas, krek-ka, ka-ro-li-nen-sis) 



Colour Plates Nos. 12 and 14. Downy Young No. 33. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Nettion, Greek, meaning a duckling, a little duck, diminutive of netta, a duck; 

 carolinenese and carolinensis, Latinized forms, meaning of Carolina; anas, Latin, 

 meaning a duck; crecca, Latin, to express the sound, crex, crake, quack. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Common teal; green-wing; teal; teal duck. IN LOCAL USE: 

 Butterball; congo; congotte (also misspelled cognotte, refers to small size Congo 

 slaves were the smallest brought to the New Orleans market); lake teal; mud teal; 

 partridge-duck; redhead teal; sarcelle (teal); sarcelle d'hiver (winter teal); spring 

 teal; water-partridge; winter teal. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and upper neck, chestnut, dusky 

 on chin, throat, and forehead, with glossy green patch including eye and extend- 

 ing backward, separated from its fellow by black patch on hindneck, the green 

 shading into black beneath and behind eye, and bordered with faint, buffy-white 

 line often extending forward to base of bill; crest, chestnut, longer feathers pur- 

 plish black; lower neck, like back; bill, black, about as long as head, small and 

 slender; eye, brown. Body. Back, scapulars and sides, greyish, being finely ver- 

 miculated with dusky and white; some outer scapulars becoming black by spring; 

 rump, slaty brown; chest, pinkish buffy, with round, blackish spots; a vertical 

 white bar on side of body in front of wing; breast, white or buffy white, often 

 stained with rusty; belly, whitish, with fine vermiculations of dusky; black bar 

 on flank at base of tail; feet, bluish grey to olive grey, webs, darker. Tail, slaty 

 brown, narrowly margined with white, under surface, ashy; upper coverts, black, 

 with ashy edgings on inner webs; under coverts, central feathers, black, outside 

 ones, yellowish buff. Wings. Coverts, grey; greater coverts broadly tipped with 

 buffy brown; primaries, dull, greyish brown, lighter on inner webs, inner pri- 

 maries tipped with whitish; secondaries, with speculum of glossy black outwardly 

 and metallic green inwardly, bordered in front with bar of buffy brown and be- 

 hind with white or buffy, lacking on inner feathers; tertials, brownish grey, some- 

 times edged with white, outer web, forming a black inner border to speculum; 

 lining, white, dusky along forward edge; axillars, white. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The moult into eclipse starts in June or July and is usually 

 complete in August. The full-plumaged wing is renewed. The plumage is then 

 very similar to that of the female, except that the spotting on underparts is 

 less distinct. Eclipse male may be distinguished from juvenile male in having 

 scapulars broader, with square instead of rounded tips, and breast unstreaked. 



AUTUMN PLUMAGE: From the eclipse plumage, which resembles that of the 

 female, the adult male commences, in September, a continuous moult toward the 

 winter plumage. The wing is as in winter plumage. In early stages the male can 



