Blue-winged Teal 43 
Genus QUERQUEDULA. 
Size very small—wing less than 8; no sign of a crest; bill broader 
than in Neition; speculum glossy green, wing-coverts sky blue. 
Two species in the United States. 
Blue-winged Teal. Querquedula discors. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 140—Colorado Records—Baird 58, p. 780; 
Henshaw 75, p. 477; Drew 81, p. 142; 85, p. 18; Beckham 85, p. 144; 
W. G. Smith 87, p. 169; Morrison 88, p. 140; 89, p. 149; Cooke 97, 
pp. 18, 54, 194; 06, p. 32; Henderson 03, p. 234; 09, p. 225; 
Warren 06, p. 19; 09, p. 13; Rockwell 08, p. 157; Felger 09, p. 280. 
Description. _Male—Crown, base of the bill and chin, dark brown; 
a crescent-shaped white mark across the face in front of the eye; rest 
of the head and neck ashy-grey with a mauve gloss ; upper-parts dusky 
brown, scalloped and streaked with buffy-brown; below vinaceous, 
heavily spotted throughout with black; under tail-coverts black ; 
a white spot on either side at the base of the tail; wing with a green 
metallic speculum, bordered in front by white ; the whole basal portion 
of the wing light blue ; iris brown, bill black, legs dingy yellow. Length 
16; wing 7:0; tail 3-0; culmen 1:5; tarsus 1-20. 
The female is mainly speckled above, and grey, mottled with dusky, 
below, but has the characteristic blue, white and green on the wings. 
The young bird has the abdomen white, and green on the wing absent. 
Distribution.—The breeding range of this duck is mainly north of 
a line drawn from Nova Scotia to New Mexico and thence to Oregon 
and northwards to Saskatchewan, while on migration and in winter 
it covers a vast extent of country from Virginia and California to 
Brazil and Chili. 
In Colorado the Blue-wing is quite common on migration throughout 
the state in spring and autumn. Hersey and Rockwell state that it 
is far the most common breeding Duck at Barr, arriving late and leaving 
early. Henshaw writes that he found it equally abundant with the 
Green-wing at San Luis Lakes and believed that it bred there ; Aiken 
who visited San Luis Lakes the following year, confirms this. It was 
taken by Lieut. Bryan on the South Platte in July many years ago 
(Baird), and Cowie informed Henderson that it breeds on the plains 
of Boulder co. Mr. Aiken tells me he found a nest, but without eggs, 
on June 4th, on the Big Sandy Creek near Ramah, about forty miles 
east of Colorado Springs on the plains, and there is a specimen in, the 
Aiken, collection taken on May 3rd at Falcon in El Paso co. which 
might have been breeding or preparing to breed. All other observers 
only seem to have noticed this duck on migration. It arrives from 
the south rather late. Smith notes it at Loveland from March 25th 
