THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 493 



of the gunner, who often curses the watchfulness of the 

 Sprigtail. Some Ducks, when aroused, disperse in different 

 directions ; but the Sprigtails, when alarmed, cluster con- 

 fusedly together as they mount, and thereby afford the sports- 

 man a fair opportunity of raking them with advantage. They 

 generally leave the Delaware about the middle of March, on 

 the way to their native regions, the North, where they are 

 most numerous. 



NETTION, KAUP. 



Nettian, KAUP, Entwick (1829). Gray. (Type Anas crecca, L.) 



Bill unusually narrow, longer than the foot; the sides parallel; the upper lateral 



angle not extending back as far as the lower edge ; nail very narrow, linear, and 



about one-fifth as wide as the bill. 



NETTION CAROLINENSIS. Baird. 

 The Green-winged Teal. 



Anas Carottnensis, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 533. Aud. Birds Am., VI. 

 (1843) 281. 



Anas crecca, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 101. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1853) 

 219; V. 616. 



Anas (boschas) crecca, Swainson. F. Bor. Am., II. (1831) 400. Nuttv Man , II. 

 (1834) 400. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Head and neck all round chestnut; chin black; forehead dusky ; region round 

 the eye, continued along the side of the head as a broad stripe, rich-green, passing 

 into a bluish-black patch across the nape; under parts white, the feathers of the 

 jugulum with rounded black spots; lower portion of neck all round, sides of breast 

 and body, long feathers of flanks and scapulars, beautifully and finely banded 

 closely with black and grayish-white ; outer webs of some scapulars, and of outer 

 secondaries black, the latter tipped with white ; speculum broad and rich-green ; 

 wing coverts plain grayish -brown, the greater coverts tipped with buff; a white 

 crescent in front of the bend of the wing; crissum black, with a triangular patch 

 of bufFy-white on each side; lower portion of the green stripe on each side of the 

 head blackish, with a dull edge of whitish below; iris brown. 



Males vary in having the under parts sometimes strongly tinged with ferrugi- 

 nous-brown. 



Female with the wings as in the male; the under parts white, with hidden spots 

 on the jugulum and lower neck; above dark-brown, the feathers edged with gray. 



Length, fourteen inches; wing, seven and forty one-hundredths; tarsus, one and 

 fourteen one-hundredths; commissure, one and sixty-eight one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. Whole of North America; accidental in Europe. 



This beautiful little fowl is quite abundant in the spring 

 and autumn migrations in New England ; arriving in the 



