GADWALL. 251 



Mr. Proctor, subcurator at the University Museum, 

 Durham, who visited Iceland a few summers since, sent 

 me word that the Gadwall is not common there ; he only 

 obtained one nest, composed of dry grass and down, and 

 containing five eggs ; this was placed near the edge of 

 the fresh- water, in a marsh near My vat on the north side of 

 Iceland. 



This species is described by various writers on the Birds 

 of North America and the United States as being found 

 from the fur countries as low as South Carolina. 



The Gadwall, like the other Ducks of this division with 

 long and pointed wings, has a vigorous and rapid flight, 

 but appears to dislike exposure, and hides itself among 

 thick reeds and aquatic herbage. This is observed to 

 be the habit of a pair in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, which mostly conceal themselves in the long grass 

 on the islands of the ornamental water in which they are 

 confined. These birds bred there in the season of 1839, 

 and again in 1841, laying seven or eight eggs. One egg 

 left unhatched in the nest was of a uniform buffy white 

 colour, tinged with green, and measured two inches two 

 lines in length, by one inch eight lines in breadth. These 

 Ducks feed on vegetable matter, aquatic insects, and small 

 fish. 



In the adult male the beak is lead colour ; irides hazel ; 

 the head and upper part of the neck light brown, speckled 

 with darker brown ; back grey, produced by an alterna- 

 tion of darker and lighter coloured grey lines ; the point 

 of the wing, and the small coverts chestnut, varied with 

 orange-brown ; the greater coverts almost black : primaries 

 nearly black ; the secondaries similar, but the outer webs 

 forming the speculum white ; tertials pointed, and of two 

 shades of brownish grey, the darker colour occupying the 

 centre of each feather, the lighter colour forming the mar- 



