AMERICAN WIDGEON. 339 
hours of the day; but in thickly inhabited parts of the country, they 
usually seek for food at night or early in the morning. 
The flight of this species is rather swift, well sustained, and accom- 
panied by the whistling sound of the wings usual in birds of this family. 
They move in flocks of moderate size, and without much care as to the 
disposition of their ranks, being sometimes extended into a front line, 
sometimes in single file, frequently mingled confusedly, and flying at a 
moderate height, whether over the land or over the water. When 
they are first started, they fly almost perpendicularly, in a hurried and. 
rather irregular manner. They walk prettily and with ease. After 
heavy falls of rain in our Southern States, they often alight in the corn 
fields, in company with other Ducks, where the ploughed earth, being 
quite moist and soft, yields them an abundant supply of worms and in- 
sects, as well as grains of corn, pease, and other equally nutritious 
substances. 
Dr Ricwarpson informs us that this species breeds in the woody 
districts of the Fur Countries, up to their most northern limits, in lati- 
tude 80°; and Dr Townsenp states that it is abundant on the Co- 
lumbia River; but he has not furnished me with any account of its 
breeding, and I have not had an opportunity of observing it during the 
season of propagation, as I left the Texas without having found a nest 
or young. 
Anas Americana, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 526—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. 11. p. 861. 
—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 384. 
American WincGEon, Anas Americana, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 86, pl. 69, 
fig. 4. 
Mareca AmEricana, Stephens, AMERICAN WipGEON, Richards. and Swains. Fauna 
Boreali-Americana, vol. ii. p. 445. 
American WipeEon, Wuitall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 389. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCXLV. Fig. 1. 
Bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, de- 
pressed towards the end, the sides nearly parallel, the tip rounded. 
Upper mandible with the frontal angles short and obtuse, the dorsal 
line at first sloping, then concave, at the end decurved, the ridge broad 
and flat at the base, then broadly convex, the edges soft, with about 
fifty-five internal lamellae, the unguis obovate, curved abruptly at the 
end. Nostrils sub-basal, lateral, near the ridge, oblong, pervious. 
