The Ducks. 
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The Gadwall. 
THE GADWALL. 
(Chaulelasmus 
strcpevus.) 
The Gadwall has a narrower bill than the Mallard, and the 
sexes are not so different in colour as in most of the Ducks. 
The species is easily told by the chestnut and black patch on 
the wing, the speculum of which is white, these characters 
being more evident in the male than the female. The Gadwall nests in Norfolk, 
but is principally known as a winter visitor to Great Britain. It nests throughout 
the greater part of Europe and in Iceland, and it also extends throughout Northern 
Asia to the Pacific, as well as to North America. It is a fresh-water Duck and is 
shy in its habits, but sometimes congregates in large numbers on inland waters. 
The nest is placed on the ground, and consists of a depression in the latter, lined 
with bits of reed or grass, and with the down of the bird. The eggs are from eight to 
twelve in number, and are from two to two-and-a-quarter inches in length ; they are 
of a buffy or creamy-white colour. 
This is a handsome Duck, very similar in form to the 
Gadwall, but differing in its somewhat longer tail and in the 
lamellae of the bill being less prominent. The colour of the 
bill is grey, tipped with black, and the species can always be told by its green 
wing-speculum, and by the large patch of white on the wing, formed by the median 
and greater wing-coverts ; this is less developed in the females and young birds. 
The Wigeon breeds regularly in the north of Scotland and is believed to do so 
occasionally in Ireland, but it is principally known as a winter visitor to the British 
Isles. The breeding-range of the Wigeon extends from Northern Europe to Eastern 
THE WIGEON. 
(Marcca penelope.) 
