CINNAMON TEAL 397 
family represented 7.7 %, the smart- weeds 3.2% and other families of plants in much 
smaller amounts. 
The animal food comprised a little over 20 % of the total, and included insects and 
their larvae, 10.19 % (beetles, water-bugs and water-boatmen, dragon-flies and flies of 
various species), mollusks, mostly snails, 8.69% and miscellaneous animals, 1.26%. 
In a stomach which Mr. J. L. Peters brought back from the Argentine, Mr. Mc- 
Atee found many seeds of Rumex (dock), more than 360 seeds of Myriophyllum 
(water milfoil), about 80 seeds of Sdrpus americanus (rush), a few other small 
seeds and remains of caddis larvae and cases, besides bits of a snail. 
Courtship and Nesting. The display is said to resemble exactly that of the 
Shoveller (Wormald, 1914) which means that it is also very similar to that of the 
Blue-winged Teal. The mating flight does occur, but is not so high nor so graceful 
as in other Teal, Dr. Wetmore tells me. On the breeding grounds the males are 
pugnacious, and this seems to be a marked characteristic of the species. Hudson 
(P. L. Sclater and Hudson, 1889) considered them the most pugnacious of all the 
Teal in the Argentine, and says that when two pairs meet, the males almost invari- 
ably fight. More recently this behavior has been described by W. L. Dawson and 
Bowles (1909) and by H. C. Bryant (1914). The latter says that the “combatants, 
swimming on the water, would face each other about a foot apart, and make lunges 
at each other, using both bill and wings as weapons. Occasionally one of the birds 
would avoid attack by diving, allowing the other to jump completely over him.” 
At Lake Burford, New Mexico, Wetmore (1920) also noticed great competition 
among the males, while single males insisted on paying attention to females already 
mated. On one occasion six males were seen making a demonstration toward one 
female, who paid no attention to them but followed her mate. He swam first at one 
then at another of the interlopers, and after each chase returned to his mate, bowing 
rapidly, while occasionally she bowed to him in return. After a few minutes another 
pair of mated Teal flew by and four of the bachelor males flew off after the new 
arrivals. 
In North America the Cinnamon Teal seems to nest a bit earlier than the Blue- 
wing, which is natural in view of its more western distribution. In Washington the 
breeding season extends from May 20 to June 15 (W. L. Dawson and Bowles, 1909) 
and in Oregon nests are found from May 15 to at least the middle of June (Bendire, 
1877; J. C. Merrill, 1888). Nests have been found in California as early as April 
18, and as late as July 14. The average time for full clutches is perhaps the first half 
of May (Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918) but there are so many dates for late May 
and early June (U.S. Biological Survey) that I do not feel certain of this. In Colo- 
rado, where the breeding areas of the two species distinctly overlap, the Cinnamon 
Teal is said to nest a little later than the Blue-wing (Preble, U.S. Biological Survey). 
