ANATID.E THE SWANS, GEESE, AND DUCKS, 139 



Anas strepera Linn. 



GADWALL. 



Popular synonyms. Gray Duck ; Gray Widgeon (Savannah, Ga.) ; Speckle-belly ; Creek Duck 



(Long Island) ; Blaten Duck (coast of New Jersey) ; Pato pardo de Grupo (Mexico). 

 Anas strepera LINN. 8. N. ed. 10, i. 1758,125; ed. 12,1,1766,200. WILS. Am. Orn. viii, 1814, 120, 



pi. TI.-NUTT. Man. ii, 1834, 383.-AUD. Orn. Biog. iv, 1838. 353, pL 348; Synop. 1839. 378; 



K, Am.,yi, 1813, 254, pi. 388. A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 135. BIDGW. Man. N. Am. B. 



1887,95. 



Anas (Chcmliodus) streperus Sw. & BICH. F. B.-A. ii, 1831, 440. 

 Ohaulelasmus streperus "GRAY. 1838;" List B. Br. Mus. 1844, 139. BAIRB, B. N. Am. 1858. 



782; Cat N. Am. B. 1859, No. 584. COUES, Key, 1872, 286; Check List. 1873, No. 491; 2d 



ed. 1882,No. 711; Birds N. W. 1874, 563. HENSH. Zool. Wheeler's Exp. 1875, 474. RIDGW. 



Orn. 40th Par. 1877. 622; Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 604.-B. B. & E. Water B. N. Am. i, 



1884, 506. 



Anas strepera americana, MAX. Jour, fur Orn. ii, 1842, 169. 

 "Chaulelasmus americana, Br." (GBAT). 

 "Anas cinerea et subuiata, S. G. GMELIN." (GRAY). 

 Anas kekuschka GMEL. S. N. i, pt. ii, 1788, 531. 

 "Anas mail, HODGSON" (GRAY). 

 "Anas capensis, SWAINSON" (GRAY). 



HAB. Nearly cosmopolitan (Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America). Temperate 

 North America in general, breeding chiefly within the United States; West Indies. 



SP. CHAR. Adult maletnfatt, iirinter, and spring: Ground-color of the head and neck 

 pale brown, or brownish white, thickly speckled with black; on the pileum the brown 

 more uniform, and the specks obsolete ; on the occiput, when present, they incline to the 

 form of transverse bars. Chest marked with horseshoe-like bars, or crescents, of white 

 and black, the bars of the latter wider. Lateral portions of the body beneath, back, and 

 scapulars finely waved, in curved transverse lines, with slate-color and white. Many of 

 the longer scapulars plain brownish gray, broadly edged with a lighter, more fulvous tint. 

 Bump plain dull slate. Tail-coverts, above and below, intense opaque velvety black. Tat! 

 ashy, faintly edged with white. Middle rows of wing-coverts bright chestnut, the anterior 

 coverts brownish gray, and the posterior ones deep black; last row deep velvety black. 

 Speculum immaculate pure white, the lower feathers ashy (some with black on outer webs, ) 

 narrowly tipped with white; tertials plain pale ash, the primaries a darker shade of the 

 same. "Bill bluish black. Iris reddish hazeL Feet dull orange- yellow, claws brownish 

 black, webs dusky" (AuDtTBON). Adult male, in summer: "Crown brownish black, with 

 a greenish tinge; an indistinct streak through the eye, dark brown; rest of the head and 

 neck dull brownish white, marked with blackish brown, as in the previously described 

 bird [adult male in spring]; back, rump, and upper tail-coverts dark blackish brown, each 

 feather margined with rusty red; wings and tail as in the bird above described; breast 

 dull rusty red, each feather with a central black spot ; flanks dark brown, broadly marked 

 and margined with dull rufous ; the rest of the under parts dull white, each feather having 

 a central blackish brown drop-shaped mark". (SHARPS & DRESSER.) 



Adult female: Colors chiefly brownish dusky and brownish white, in longitudinal 

 streaks on the head and neck, and in irregular transverse spots and bars on other portions. 

 On the upper surface the dusky prevails, and on the lower parts the whitish predominates. 

 Wing nearly as in the male, but the chestnut usually absent, the black less extended, and 

 the gray of the coverts generally more or less barred and tipped with white. Abdomen 

 and lower part of the breast pure white ; throat finely streaked with dusky. Downy young : 

 "Covered with soft short down; head, nape, back, and rump, dark dull brown, on each side 

 of the rump and back of each wing-joint a sulphur-yellow spot, the wing-joints being 

 marked with that color; forehead, space round the eye, throat, and chest pale sulphur- 

 yellow; abdomen white, shaded with sulphur- yellow, on the lower part sooty gray." 

 (SHARPE & DRESSER.) 



