384 
ANAS DISCORS 
The clutch is large. Nests found by Oberholser (1920) in Nebraska averaged 
nearly ten eggs each; those noted by Job (1902) in North Dakota averaged some- 
what over nine. The average of a great number of clutches taken by Rockwell (1911) 
in Colorado was nine to ten. Clutches of twelve are not uncommon and as many as 
fourteen have been found in one nest (Nelson, 1876). The eggs are pale olive-buff 
and measure 43.5-49.0 by 32-34.5 mm., the average being 46 by 33 mm. They are 
not to be distinguished from those of the Green-winged or the Cinnamon Teal, though 
they are slightly larger on the average, than those of the former. 
The incubation period is from twenty-one to twenty-three days (Job, 1915), which 
is apparently the same as that of the other x\merican Teal. The male shows no more 
tendency to stay with his mate than do the males of other surface-feeding ducks. 
Ordinarily they begin to form bachelor parties as soon as incubation has begun. 
Although change into eclipse plumage undoubtedly begins by late June, I strongly 
suspect that the process is a rather long affair. Male specimens which were shot in 
mid-July at Athabasca Lake were only in half eclipse, and my own pinioned speci- 
mens are in ragged and intermediate stages until the middle or end of August. 
INIoreover, the most perfect eclipse plumages are seen in old males taken in Septem- 
ber and October. This dress is retained, as in the Garganey, through the early 
part of the winter, but changes very rapidly from early February to March. iNIy own 
birds have often moulted and grown their wing-feathers before perfect eclipse was 
assumed but observations on captive specimens are not of course reliable. 
There is little recorded that is noteworthy in the behavior of the female during 
and after incubation. 
Status. Before the passage of the Federal law protecting migratory birds this 
Teal was decreasing everywhere at an alarming rate, and in eastern Canada as well 
as in the northeastern States it was all but wiped out. There are many good reasons 
for this state of affairs. The greater part of its breeding range had become in the 
previous fifty or seventy-five years agriculturalized and settled. In the second 
place, the tame and unsuspicious nature of the bird, and the absence of any effective 
law resulted in a heavy mortality during the late summer and early autumn, to say 
nothing of the spring shooting. Finally the excellence of its flesh caused a great and 
steady demand for it in the markets. 
In our northeastern States until about 1880 this was a common duck, indeed one of 
the most abundant of the migrant surface-feeding ducks in early autumn, ranking 
second only to the Black Duck. Talks with any of the better-informed sportsmen 
of the older generation will convince one of this, and authorities like Brew'ster 
(1906), Maynard {in lift.) and Forbush (1912) are in accord on this point. My own 
statistics for Wenham Lake, INIassachusetts, are of little value, because the records 
were started in the autumn too late to include the main flight of Blue-wdngs, which 
