240 
ANAS CAROLINENSIS 
and are also indistinguishable from those of the Blue-winged Teal, although the 
maximum measurements for eggs of the latter are slightly larger. The nest-down is 
the same as that of the European Teal and is many shades darker than the female’s 
winter down (Bowles, 1917). The incubation period is about twenty-one days, or 
from twenty to twenty-three days (Job, 1915; and others). 
After the young are hatched the female is unusually fearless in her attempts to 
lead the intruder away from the brood. Many stories of the ruses employed are to 
be found in the literature. Mr. Francis Harper writes me that a female he surprised 
with a brood turned and flapped all about his canoe, quacking aahk aahk, taking 
short flights, and in alighting, tobogganing along the surface on the outspread webs 
of her feet, which held her up for some time. The young have the same fine peeping 
notes as other young Mallard-like ducks. 
Careful observations made on the breeding grounds by Bent (1901-02), Job 
(1902), Wetmore (1920, 1921) and Harper (MS.) failed to show any tendency in the 
male to stay with the family any longer than does the Mallard. In spite of what has 
been said under Anas creccn, it seems to me that instances of the male remaining 
with the family must be very exceptional, if they occur at all. Males in eclipse are 
not so difficult to find as with some other species. On July 6, 1921, near Okanagan 
Lake, British Columbia, Major Allan Brooks saw nine males in all stages of plumage 
from full breeding to full eclipse and every one of these birds was capable of rapid 
flight. The moulting of the primaries takes place some time after the eclipse 
plumage is complete, as it usually does in other ducks. 
Status. Over the whole of New England the Green-wing may be termed an un- 
common, late-autumn migrant, and a very rare spring migrant. It is impossible to 
judge from earlier writers the exact standing of this species seventy-five or one 
hundred years ago. Aubudon evidently considered it rare to the northeast of 
Philadelphia, though others considered it tolerably abundant on migration. It 
probably was never more than 10% or 15% as abundant as the Blue-wing. Forbush 
(1912), basing his conclusions on correspondence with old hunters and residents, 
thinks that remarkable flights occurred in Massachusetts up to 1850. I am inclined 
to think it was never common east of the Hudson, except for sporadic autumn flights 
which were probably few and far between but may have left a vivid impression on 
the minds of shooters. My own records at Wenham Lake, Massachusetts, extending 
over a period of twenty-two years, give a good idea of this Teal’s actual standing in 
the autumn flight. It represents only a little over 1 % of all the ducks shot there. 
In the Lake Erie region Green-wings are abundant in the autumn, representing 
7.5% of the total bag between 1887 and 1920 at the Long Point Club, where 
4502 were taken in those years. There is no evidence of any decrease during this 
period. Very high years were 1887, 1889, 1890, 1901, 1910, 1912, 1916, and 1919. 
