256 
GADWALL DUCK. 
season they produced large broods. The family cf 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 Countries, 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. Townsend on the Columbia river. 
Gadwall, Anas strepera, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viiii. 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, 211, 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 lamellte, 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 
lamellm. 
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, compressed, rather acute, the hind one very small and more curved, 
that of the middle toe with an inner sharp edge. 
