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RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



FIELD MARKS 



ON THE WATER. The Blue-winged Teal is almost as small as the Greenwing, 

 and its diminutive size will distinguish both sexes from all ducks except the other 

 teals and the little Buffle-head; size alone, however, is a poor identifying feature 



in the field except when small and larger ducks 

 are observed in mixed flocks. The bright-blue 

 wing patch of both sexes is the best distinguishing 

 feature and will separate them from the Green- 

 winged and European Teals; the red colour of 

 the male Cinnamon and the conspicuous black-and-white markings of the Buffle- 

 head will prevent confusion with those species. At close range the white crescent 

 on side of the face of the male Blue-wing is quite noticeable, as is also the white 

 patch on each flank near base of tail. The female can be told from the female 

 Green-wing by the blue wing-patch but cannot be distinguished from the female 

 Cinnamon Teal. The female Shoveller is similarly marked, but its larger size and 

 large bill will separate. 



IN FLIGHT. These ducks fly with 

 great speed, in close flocks and with many 

 twisting and turnings, darting hither and 

 thither with the speed of swallows. They 

 rise from land or water vertically into the 

 air with great agility. The blue wing- 

 patch of both sexes is noticeable in flight, 

 but in bright light appears almost white. 

 In poor light flocks cannot be distinguished 

 from the other teals, though by their erratic 

 flight and twitterings and chirpings, they 

 can be told from all other species even in 

 very dim twilight. 



VOICE. Silent when feeding. On the wing males utted a whistling peep, oft' 

 repeated; a soft, lisping note, tseef, tseef, tseef; females, a faint quack, less plain or 

 forcible than that of the female Green-wing. 



LIFE STORY 



The tender little Blue-winged Teal is exclusively a New World 

 species. It is a bird of the inland marshes, ponds, and sloughs, seldom vis- 

 iting the sea coasts; plentiful in the east, and still more abundant in the 

 interior, it is hardly ever encountered on the Pacific coast. The Blue- 

 winged and Cinnamon Teals are more closely related to each other than 

 they are to the other teals, and the marked similarity of these species to 

 the Shoveller is dealt with fully in the "Life Story" of that bird. 



"Not until spring is well advanced and really hot weather has come 

 in its winter haunts does this tender warm-weather bird decide to leave 

 the sunny glades of Florida and the bayous of Louisiana, where it has 

 spent the winter or early spring, dabbling in the shallow, muddy pools 

 and marshes. The early migrants are probably hardier individuals that 

 have wintered farther north, but the later migrants linger in the Gulf 

 States through April and even into May." In the autumn, "as soon as 



