2 BULLETIN 862, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



United States totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of 

 the species covered by this bulletin are among the most valuable, 

 as the pintail, gadwall, baldpate, and green-winged teal. 



The ducks here discussed have not thus-far been utilized in duck 

 farming to so great an extent as the mallard and black ducks, but 

 the wood duck and the green-winged teal have proved to be adapted 

 to such use, and possibly further experiments will result as success- 

 fully with some of the other species. Information presented in the 

 following pages shows the preferences of these ducks among vege- 

 table foods, matters which should be heeded in attempting to estab- 

 lish the more or less natural conditions which probably will be found 

 necessary for success in the propagation of some of the species in 



inclosures. 



GADWALL. 



(Chaulelasmus streperius.) 



Plate I. 



The gadwall, or gray duck, as it is sometimes called, is almost 

 cosmopolitan in its distribution, breeding commonly in Europe, Asia, 

 and North America and ranging south in winter to southern Asia, 

 some distance into Africa, and in North America to the southern end 

 of Low T er California and to southern Puebla. East of the Mississippi 

 River, how T ever, and north of North Carolina, the bird is rare, and in 

 New England is found only as a straggler. It breeds in most of the 

 western United States and in southern Canada, but its principal breed- 

 ing range for North America is in the prairie district extending from 

 Manitoba and western Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains, south to 

 Nebraska, and north to Saskatchewan. 



The adult male gadwall is distinguished particularly by the scale- 

 like markings on the breast, each feather on the lower neck and breast 

 being black with a white crescent and a white border, producing a 

 peculiar mottled or barred effect. The bird has a prominent white 

 speculum or wing patch, bordered in front by black, with an area 

 of chestnut-brown on the forepart of the wing, comprising the middle 

 wing coverts. The remainder of the plumage is chiefly gray or 

 brownish, streaked with black. The female lacks the chestnut 

 wing coverts, and the breast and sides are buffy with the barred appear- 

 ance less distinct. 



FOOD HABITS. 



In habits the gadwall resembles the mallard, feeding either on dry 

 land or in shallow water near the edges of ponds, lakes, and streams, 

 where it gets its food by "tilting" or standing on its head in the 

 water. The food of both the gadwall and the baldpate, however, is 

 quite different in some respects from that of the mallard. These 

 two feed to a very large extent upon the leaves and stems of water 



