River and Pond Ducks 



Bald pate 



(Anas americana) 



Called also: AMERICAN WIDGEON 



Length 18 to 20 inches. 



Male Crown of head white or buff; sides of head, from the eye 

 to the nape, have broad band of glossy green, more or 

 less sprinkled with black; cheeks and throat buff, marked 

 with fine lines and bars of black ; upper breast and sides light 

 reddish, violet brown (vinaceous), each feather with grayish 

 edge forming bars across breast. More grayish sides are 

 finely waved with black; lower parts and wing-linings 

 white ; black under tail. Back grayish brown, more or less 

 tinged with the same color as breast, and finely marked with 

 black. Wings have glossy green patch bordered by velvety 

 black. Bill grayish blue with black tip. Feet and legs 

 dusky. 



female Smaller. Head and throat white or cream ; finely barred 

 with black and without green bands; darker above; upper 

 breast and sides pale violet, reddish brown washed with 

 grayish, interrupted with whitish or gray bars. Wings like 

 male's, though the speculum may be indistinct and gray re- 

 place the white; back grayish brown, the feathers barred 

 with buff. 



Range North America; nests regularly from Minnesota north- 

 ward, and casually as far as Texas, but not on the Atlantic 

 coast. Winters in the United States, from southern states 

 to the Gulf; also in Guatemala, Cuba, and northern South 

 America. 



Season Spring and autumn visitor, and winter resident, October 

 to April. 



The baldpates, keeping just in advance of the teeth of winter 

 with the large army of other ducks that come flying out of the 

 north in wedge-shaped battalions when the first ice begins to 

 form, break their long journey to the Gulf states and the tropics 

 by a prolonged feast in the wild rice, sedges, and celery in north- 

 ern waters, both inland and along the coast. A warm reception 

 of hot shot usually awaits them all along the line, for when celery- 

 fed or fattened on rice their flesh can scarcely be distinguished 

 from that of the canvasback duck, and sportsmen and pot-hunters 

 exhaust all known devices to lure them within gun-range. The 

 gentleman hidden behind "blinds" on the "duck-shores" of 



IOO 



