River and Pond Ducks 



victims, help pile the poultry stalls of our city markets just as 

 soon as the law allows in autumn. In the early spring, when 

 the law is still "open" and should be closed, housekeepers find 

 eggs already well formed in this and other game birds brought to 

 their kitchens. Of all the wild fowl that enter the United States, 

 this duck, it is said, possesses the greatest economic value, which 

 should be a sufficient reason, if no higher motive prompted, to 

 give it the fullest protection. While the nesting season is from 

 the last of April to the early part of June, the birds have mated 

 many weeks before. They are the spring laws that need serious 

 going over by our legislators. 



So closely resembling the mallard in habits that an account 

 of them need not be repeated here, the black duck is not so com- 

 mon in the interior nor in the south, for it was the Florida duck 

 that early ornithologists confounded with this species, which, 

 they claimed, had the phenomenal nesting range extending from 

 Labrador to the Gulf. Illinois and New Jersey are as far south as 

 its nests have been found. The black duck, that seems to have 

 a more hardy constitution than many of its kin, stays around our 

 larger ponds long after the ice has formed, and where springs 

 keep open pools, it is not infrequently met with all through a 

 mild winter. 



Gadwall 



(Anas slrepera) 



Called also: GRAY DUCK 



Length — 20 to 22 inches. 



Male — Upper parts have general appearance of brownish gray, 

 waved and marked with crescent-shaped white and blackish 

 bars. Top of head streaked with black or reddish brown; 

 sides of head and neck pale buff brown, mottled with 

 darker; lower neck and breast black or very dark gray, each 

 feather marked with white and resembling scales ; grayish 

 and white underneath, minutely lined with gray waves; 

 lower back dusky, changing to black on tail coverts; space 

 under tail black. Wings chestnut brown, gray, and black, 

 with white patch framed in velvety black and chestnut. 

 Wing-linings white. Bill lead color. Feet orange. 



Female — Smaller than male and darker. Head and throat like 

 male's; back dark grayish brown, the feathers edged with 



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