River and Pond Ducks 



particularly active toward night and at dawn, they are not 

 so shy as many. Farmers often see them picking up corn 

 thrown about the barnyard; and Mr. Arnold tells in the "Nid- 

 ologist " of finding nests of the green-winged teals built in tufts 

 of grass on the sun baked banks along the railroad tracks in 

 Manitoba, where the workmen constantly passed the brooding 

 females intent only on keeping warm their large nestful of cream- 

 white eggs. Nests have been found elsewhere, quite a distance 

 from water, which would seem scarcely intelligent were not the 

 teals very good walkers from the first, and less dependent than 

 others on the food water supplies. In the west one some- 

 times surprises a brood and its devoted little mother poking about 

 in the undergrowth for acorns, or for grapes, corn, wheat, and 

 oats that lie about the cultivated lands at harvest time. Green- 

 wings are early nesters, and have full fledged young in July, when 

 the blue-wings and cinnamon teal are still sitting. 



Blue-winged Teal 



(Anas discors) 



Called also: WHITE-FACED TEAL; SUMMER TEAL 



Length — 15 to 16 inches. 



Male — Head and neck deep gray or lead color with purplish 

 reflections ; black on top ; a broad white crescent bordered by 

 black in front of head ; breast and underneath pale reddish 

 buff, spotted with dusky gray on the former and barred on 

 the flanks. Back reddish brown, marked with black and 

 buff crescents, more greenish near the tail. Shoulders dull 

 sky blue ; wing patch green bordered with white. Bill gray- 

 ish black. Feet yellowish with dusky webs. 



Female — Dusky brown marked with buff, with an indistinct white 

 patch on chin; sides of the head and neck whitish, finely 

 marked with black spots except on throat ; breast and under- 

 neath paler than male in winter; wings similar but with less 

 white. In summer plumage males and females closely re- 

 semble each other. 



Range — North America from Alaska and the British fur countries 

 to Lower California, the West Indies, and South America; 

 nests from Kansas northward ; winters from Virginia and the 

 lower Mississippi Valley southward. Most abundant east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. 



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