49^ REPORT OF THE 



tip black ; the eye is brown, the legs and feet light bluish. The female is 

 much less brightly colored, being brown above, mottled with ochraceous buff or 

 whitish ; the wing-coverts are ashy with broad margins of white, the speculum 

 plain black the head and neck are dull white, streaked with dusky ; the breast is 

 pinkish gray, the flanks and sides of a deeper shade of the same; and the 

 crissum is cross-marked with brown. 



Ti)e ^lae-uinged Teal. 



Although ranging over almost the entire North American continent, the Blue- 

 winged Teal finds its most congenial home in that wide-extending area commonly 

 termed the Valley of the Mississippi. The species is rare in most of the extreme 

 Avestern portions of the United States, and still more so, or entirely absent, in the 

 far northern regions. It passes the season of reproduction in British America and 

 the northeastern States of the Union, south interiorly at least to Texas; in the 

 winter season moving down as far as Central America, the West Indies, Ecuador 

 and Guiana. 



Being essentially a bird of the fresh water, and moreover a great vegetarian, it 

 naturally seeks the marshy fiats along the rivers, lakes and ponds, in which localities 

 it frequently congregates in great numbers. Its flight is rapid and sustained ; and in 

 air or on water the flocks are usually dense, which, with a rather unsuspicious nature, 

 renders its capture comparatively easy. When feeding it is quite graceful in move- 

 ment, immersing head and neck in efforts to obtain the desired parts of water 

 plants, and swimming smoothly and rapidly from place to place. When it finds an 

 abundance of its favorite wild oats it becomes in a short time exceedingly fat, and 

 in this condition is much esteemed for the table. Somewhat susceptible to cold, it 

 leaves its chosen autumn rendezvous on the approach of severe weather. On 

 occasions not infrequent it associates with several of the larger snipes, as well as 

 with species of ducks. 



As a suitable place for her nest the mother Blue-wing seeks generally the reedy 

 or grassy margin of pond or sluggish stream, where on the ground, sometimes in the 

 water, she builds of reeds and rushes and lines with down the home for her young. 

 Her six to twelve eggs are plain creamy or buffy white. 



Some i6 inches in length and 30 in extent of wing, the male Blue-winged Teal 

 has the crown blackish, the rest of the head lead color, with a purplish gloss on the 

 sides of the neck and hind-head, and with a large white crescent in front of the eye ; 

 the back is brown, with U-shaped markings of ochraceous ; the lesser wing-coverts 



