82 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Range. — Nearly cosmopolitan. In North America breeds from southern 

 British Columbia, central Alberta and central Keewatin south to south- 

 ern California, southern Colorado, northern Nebraska and southern 

 Wisconsin; winters from southern British Columbia, Arizona, Arkan- 

 sas, southern Illinois and North Carolina south to southern Lower Cal- 

 ifornia, central Mexico and Florida; accidental in Bermuda, Cuba and 

 Jamaica; rare in migration on the Atlantic coast of the middle and 

 New England States north to Newfoundland. 



History. 



In North America this ahiiost cosmopolitan species breeds 

 mainly, if not entirely, in the western province. There is 

 reason to believe that the Gadwall was once not uncommon 

 in New England; but within the last half century not many 

 specimens are known to have been taken in Massachusetts. 

 Wilson believed it to be rare in the " northern parts of the 

 United States," and it was probably always less common in 

 the New England States than in the west and south; but I 

 am convinced, by the statements of the older ornithologists 

 and by descriptions given me by some of the older gunners, 

 that the Gadwall was more often seen in the early part of 

 the last century than it now is, and that some of the so-called 

 Gray Ducks which were then killed here were of this species. 

 Mr. Willard C. Whiting, who has consulted with the Plym- 

 outh gunners and members of the Plymouth Natural His- 

 tory Society, and has examined the scores of the gunning 

 stands, believes that the Gadwall was not uncommon there 

 in the early days. Now, however, the bird is unknown to 

 most of the present generation of Massachusetts gunners. 



De Kay (1844) says that this species breeds in central 

 New York. Eaton (1910) considers it as not common now 

 in any part of New York, but states that Mr. Foster 

 Parker once met a gunner with twenty, which he had 

 recently killed in the " ponds." Linsley says that flocks of 

 the Gray Duck arrived in Connecticut in August, 1842. ^ Dr. 

 C. Hart Merriam, in his Review of the Birds of Connecticut 

 (1877), regards it as not common. Even now, although it is 

 very rare here, a few are still taken. Its only known breed- 



1 Linsley, James H.: A Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut, Am. Jour, of Sci. and Arts, April, 

 1843, Vol. XLIV., No. 2, p. 269. 



