62 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Like the Mallard, this species appears each year to be acquiring more wisdom 

 in the matter of avoiding its human enemies. Few marks are more difficult to the 

 gunner than a Black Duck when it springs suddenly from the water and begins 

 climbing rapidly upward. Seldom does this wary bird today present a straight- 

 away shot. Repeated rumors come from the North Carolina coast that the wild 

 Black Duck breeds sparingly in that region, but until the present time it has been 

 found impossible for us to have these statements verified with specimens, or by the 

 observations of ornithologists. 



Jasper White, writing from Waterlily, N. C., in Forest and Stream for August 6, 

 1910, remarks: "We often see young Black Ducks, Wood Ducks, and Mallards." 

 Black Ducks arrive in North Carolina in October and depart in March and April. 



Genus Chaulelasmus (Bonap.) 

 44. Chaulelasmus streperus (Linn.}. GADWALL. 



Ad. <?. Top of head streaked with rufous-brown and black; sides of head and neck pale 

 buffy, thickly streaked or spotted with black; breast and neck all around black, each feather 

 with a border and an internal ring of white, giving the plumage a beautifully scaled appear- 

 ance; belly white or grayish; rump, upper and under tail-coverts black; lesser wing-coverts 

 chestnut. Ad. ? . -Head and throat as in male; back fuscous margined with buffy; breast 



FIG. 36. GADWALL. 



and sides ochraceous-buffy, thickly spotted with blackish; belly and under tail-coverts white, 

 more or less thickly spotted with blackish; little or no chestnut on wing-coverts; speculum ashy 

 gray and white; axillars and under wing-coverts pure white. L., 19.50; W., 10.40; Tar., 1.55; 

 B., 1.70. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.} 



Range. Nearly the whole world, breeding in America from the northern United States 

 northward. 



Range in North Carolina. -Coastal region in winter. 



The "Gray Duck" does not appear to be a very abundant species, and par- 

 ticularly is this the case along the Atlantic coast. A good many are shot each 

 season in the Dakotas and elsewhere in the interior / but they seem much more rare 

 in the Eastern States. Coues in 1871 reported them as common in winter at Fort 

 Macon. Bishop recorded one at Pea Island, March 5, 1906. 



