94 The Water-fowl Family 



give alarm; rising high in the air with strong, 

 swift flight, it quickly speeds beyond reach. 

 Often we see flocks of them with pintail, both 

 birds being of much the same habit. Usually in 

 small numbers, widgeon collect in large flocks in 

 the spring. On Currituck Sound, in March of 

 some years, the numbers of these ducks are 

 remarkable and yet few are killed. They seem 

 to have a morning and evening flight. In the 

 late afternoon, flock after flock, high up, far out of 

 range, follow each other in quick succession lead- 

 ing toward the marshes and flats of the upper 

 bay, returning in the early morning. The line of 

 flight is abreast, and their clear whistling loud 

 and characteristic. When wounded the bird 

 skulks but seldom dives. They feed on wild 

 celery where it exists, and on various water 

 grasses, in the South visiting the rice-fields. It 

 is one of our highly esteemed ducks for the table. 

 In the various locations where it is found it goes 

 by various names, such as the American widgeon, 

 poacher, wheat-duck, baldcrown, baldpate, green- 

 headed widgeon, zan-zan. 



The female of this species resembles slightly 

 the gadwall, but distinction can readily be made 

 by the speculum, which is gray in the gadwall, in 

 the widgeon black, and by the dark mandible. 



