530 
LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 
They are described as paler than those of the Mallard, and of very line texture ; the 
color is greenish gray of a very pale, soft tone ; in shape they are oblong oval, taper- 
ing slightly at one end, and measure from 1.97 by 1.30 to 2.03 by 1.40 inches. 
The color sometimes varies to grayish cream. 
Professor Kumlien informs me that these Ducks are common in Southern Wis- 
consin, where they arrive quite late in the spring, and a few remain to breed. He has 
met with several broods of young ; but has found only one nest, which was placed in 
the midst of a high bog. It resembled that of the Mallard, but was less bulky, and 
was plentifully supplied with down. A great many old males are seen in the early 
part of summer, in flocks ; from which he naturally conjectures that their females 
breed somewhere in the extensive marshes that surround Lake Koskonong. 
Near Pewaukee, in the same State, this Duck has been found breeding by Mr. 
B. F. Goss, who writes me that on May 24, in Horicon Lake, near the highest part 
of a small island, some five feet above the water, a single “ Spoon-bill ” had made 
her nest. The Mallards were all around within a few feet. As the ground was 
quite bare, with merely a few rocks scattered about, the birds could be seen from the 
water sitting on their nests. On his first approach he noticed the Spoon-bill rising 
with the rest ; and after examining the nests, selected one that was somewhat 
smaller than the others, with smaller eggs, and lined with feathers of a little different 
shade, as the Spoon-bill’s nest. He set a small stake to mark the place, and retired 
until the birds returned to their eggs, when he again approached, watching carefully 
the indicated spot, and had the good fortune to kill the bird as she rose. The nest 
contained ten eggs, quite fresh, a little smaller than the Mallard’s, from which they 
differed somewhat in color and in shape. 
The localities in the Fur Region from which this Duck has been reported as 
breeding are Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, the Yukon River, Fort Rae, Big 
Island, Lake Winnipeg, Anderson River, the Lower Anderson, Shoal Lake, Unalakleet, 
Red River, etc. 
Eggs from the Yukon River in the Smithsonian Collection (No. 6612) are of a 
greenish-white color, and measure from 2.05 to 2.10 inches in length, and from 1.40 
to 1.50 in breadth. 
Genus QUERQUEDULA, Stephens. 
Querquedula, Stephens, Shaw’s Gen. Zool. XII. ii. 1824, 142 (type, Anas querquedula, Linn.). 
Cyanoptcrus, Eyton, Mon. Anat. 1838, 38 (type ?). (Not of Halliday, 1835.) 
Pterocyanea, Bp. Cat. Met. 1842, 71 (type). 
Char. Size small (wing less than 8 inches). Bill slightly longer than the head, the edges 
nearly parallel, the maxillary toinium sinuated, so as to distinctly expose the lamellae for the basal 
half, and the terminal half of the culmen slightly but distinctly arched. Otherwise much like 
Nettion. 
The two North American species of Querquedula agree very closely in the details of form, in 
which respect they scarcely differ from the type of the genus, the Q. circia (L.) of Europe. The 
coloration of the wing, which is almost exactly that of Spatula, is also essentially the same in these 
three species. The females are very different from the males, except in the colors of the wing, 
being much duller. The following are the main differential characters of the North American 
species : — 
1. Q. discors. Adult male : Head and neck dull plumbeous, with a faint lavender-purple 
gloss on the sides of the occiput ; pileum blackish ; a large white, somewhat crescent- 
shaped, mark before the eye, entirely across fore part of the head ; lower parts pale 
