The Gad wall 



tail-coverts glossy black; the flanks heavily and finely barred dusky-and-white; axillars 

 and lining of wings white. Bill blue-black; legs and feet dull orange, the webs dusky. 

 Adult male in breeding season: "Similar to winter male, but colors duller, crown dusky, 

 rump and breast tinged with rusty, and underparts more spotted with dusky" (Ridg- 

 way). Adult female: Head and neck much as in adult male, but remaining plumage 

 much more coarsely patterned; feathers brownish dusky with simple fulvous edgings; 

 the scaling of flanks especially coarse; no black on tail-coverts; the black tips of greater 

 coverts and the white speculum being the most "holding" characters. Length 482.6- 

 558.8 (19.00-22.00); wing 269.2 (10.60); tail 1 14.3 (4.50); bill 42.4 (1.67); tarsus 40.6 

 (1.60). Female smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Something under Mallard size; white speculum dis- 

 tinctive; crissum (of male) abruptly black. 



Nesting. — Nest: On the ground near water or in meadows, of grasses lined 

 with down. Down: Dark mouse-gray or dusky with whitish center. Eggs: 8 to 12; 

 creamy white or pale yellowish gray. Av. size 53.1 x 39.9 (2.09 x 1.57). Season: 

 c. June 10; one brood. 



General Range. — Northern Hemisphere, breeding north to Iceland and Scan- 

 dinavia; south in winter to Abyssinia, India, China, and Mexico. In America breeding 

 from southern British Columbia, central Alberta, and central Keewatin, south to south- 

 ern Wisconsin, northern Nebraska, southern Colorado, and southern California; 

 wintering south to southern Lower California, central Mexico and Florida. Accidental 

 in Bermuda, Cuba, and Jamaica. 



Distiibution in California. — Not common resident on fresh-water lakes and 

 reservoirs and flooded lands. Breeds chiefly in the San Joaquin-Sacramento Valley 

 and in the Modoc region. Has bred also at San Jacinto (Mystic) Lake in Riverside 

 County. Numbers augmented during migrations and in winter with some coastwise 

 movement. 



Authorities. — Woodhouse (Chaulelasmus strepera), Rep. Sitgreaves Exped. 

 Col. R., 1853, p. 104 (common in Calif.); McAtee, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. 

 Circular, no. 81, 1911, p. I (food); H. C.Bryant, Condor, vol. xvi., 1914, p. 222. 



ALTHOUGH rated "nearly cosmopolitan" (A. O. U. Committee) 

 and "fairly common resident west of the Sierra Nevada" (Grinnell), 

 the Gadwall is far from being one of the best known ducks. Especially 

 is this the case in California, where it is probably the least known of the 

 breeding Anatinaz. The reputation of scarcity, which a general lack of 

 acquaintance gives to this bird, is due to several causes. In the first 

 place, the birds are of a sober, rather nondescript appearance. The 

 "recognition marks" have to be specially sought for even in the male. 

 The birds seem to do nothing whatever out of the ordinary; and so they 

 seem to travel, as it were, in the shadow of the better-known forms. 

 And the Gadwall does not largely participate in the northern migrations 

 The return movements of autumn, or late August, are early and rapid, 

 and occur before the gunners are astir for "the season." 



In habits the Gadwall most nearly resembles the Mallard. Like that 

 bird it frequents the borders of marshes and weed-grown streams, where 



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