256 GADWALL DUCK. 



season they produced large broods. The family of the miller used them 

 occasionally as food, and considered them equal in flavour to the common 

 Duck, and more easily raised. The old males were more beautiful than any 

 that I have examined since; and as yet domestication had produced no 

 variety in their plumage." 



The migration of this species extends to the Fur Countrier where it is 

 said to breed. The description of a male killed on the Saskatchewan river, 

 on the 22nd of May, 1827, is given in the Fauna Boreali-Americana; and I 

 have a fine male procured by Mr. Townsekd on the Columbia river. 



Gadwall, Anas strepera, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 120. 



Anas strepera, Bonap. Syn., p. 383. 



Anas (Chauliodus) strepera, Gadwall, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. 



p. 440. 

 Gadwall or Grey, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 383. 

 Gadwall Duck, Anas strepera, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 353. 



Male, 2 If, 35. Female, 19*, 31. 



Breeds in Texas, and westward to the Columbia river, Fur Countries, and 

 sometimes in the States of New York, Massachusetts, and Maine. Rather 

 common in autumn and spring in the middle Atlantic districts; more so in 

 the Southern and Western States. 



Adult Male. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, depressed 

 towards the end, the sides parallel, the tip rounded. Upper mandible with 

 the frontal angles short and obtuse, the dorsal line at first sloping, then 

 slightly concave and direct, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then broadly 

 convex, the edges soft, with about fifty internal lamellae, the unguis roundish, 

 curved abruptly at the end. Nostrils sub-basal, lateral, rather small, oblong, 

 pervious. Lower mandible flattened, its angle very long and narrow, the 

 dorsal line very short, slightly convex, the edges soft, with about sixty 

 lamellas. 



Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed. Neck rather long, slender. 

 Body elongated, slightly depressed. Feet very short; tibia bare for about a 

 quarter of an inch; tarsus very short, compressed, anteriorly with two series 

 of scutella, the outer shorter, the rest covered with reticulated angular 

 scales; toes obliquely scutellate above; first very small, free, with a narrow 

 membrane beneath; third longest, fourth considerably shorter, second shorter 

 than fourth, their connecting webs entire, on the edge crenate; the second 

 or inner toe with a membranous margin. Claws small, slightly arched, com- 

 pressed, rather acute, the hind one very small and more curved, that of the 

 middle toe with an inner sharp edge. 



