614 THE GADWALL. 
THE GADWALL.—ANAS STREPERA.— Fie. 293. 
Le Chipeau, Briss. vi. p. 339, 8, pl. 33, fig. 1.— Buff. ix. 187. Pl. enl.958.— Arct. 
Zool. p. 515.— Lath. Syn. iii. p. 515. — Peale’s Museum, No. 2750. 
CHAULIODUS STREPERA. — Swainson. * 
Anas strepera, Linn. Syst. i. p. 200.— Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 859.— Bonap. 
Synop. p. 383.— Canard chipeau, ou ridenne, Temm. Man. ii. p. 837. — Gad- 
wall or Gray, Mont. Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp.— Bew. Br. Birds, ii. 350.— 
Gadwall, Selby’s Ilust. Brit. Ornith. p|.51.— Anas (chauliodus) strepera, North. 
Zool. ii. p. 440. — Genus Chauliodus, Swain. Journ. Royal Instit. No, iv. p. 19. 
Tuis beautiful Duck I have met with in the very distant parts of 
the United States, viz., on the Seneca Lake, in New York, about the 
20th of October, and at Louisville, on the Ohio, in February. [ also 
shot it near Big Bone Lick,-in Kentucky. With its particular manners 
ér breeding place, I am altogether unacquainted. 
The length of this species is twenty inches ; extent, thirty-one inches; 
bill, two inches long, formed very much like that of the Mallard, and of a 
brownish black ; crown, dusky brown ; rest of the upper half of the neck, 
orownish white, both thickly speckled with black , lower part of the neck 
and breast, dusky black, elegantly ornamented with large, concentric 
semicircles of white; scapulars waved with lines of white on a dusky 
ground, but narrower than that of the breast; primaries, ash; greater 
wing-coverts, black, and several of the lesser coverts, immediately 
above, chestnut red; speculum, white, bordered below with black, 
forming three broad bands on the wing, of chestnut, black, and white; 
belly, dull white; rump and tail-coverts, black, glossed with green; 
tail, tapering, pointed, of a pale brown ash, edged with white; flanks, 
dull white, elegantly waved ; tertials, long, and of a pale brown; legs, 
orange red. 
The female I have never seen. Latham describes it as follows : — 
~ Differs in having the colors on the wings duller, though marked the 
same as the male; the breast, reddish brown, spotted with black; the 
feathers on the neck and back, edged with pale red; rump, the same, 
instead of black; and those elegant semicircular lines on the neck and 
breast wholly wanting.” ; 
The flesh of this Duck is excellent, and the windpipe of the male 
is furnished with a large labyrinth. 
The Gadwall is very rare in the northern parts of the United States; 
is said to inhabit England in winter, and various parts of France 
and Italy; migrates to Sweden, and is found throughout Russia and 
Siberia. t 
* This beautiful Duck is remarkable in presenting, next to the Shovellers, the 
greatest development of lateral laminz of the bil) ; it is also an expert diver. 
In Britain they are rare, but appear more common in the Jower countries of En- 
rope and towards the north. They seem very abundant in Holland ; in the months of 
September and October they were the most common Duck in the market, and were 
often seen in abundance on the lakes. Tt will show Mr, Swainson’s genus ‘he 
siodus. — Ep. y 
+ LatrHam. 
