Plate CCCXLVIII. Male and Female.
Tail short, rounded, of sixteen pointed feathers. Male with the bill
bluish-black, the feet dull orange-yellow, the webs dusky; head light
yellowish-grey, its upper part and nape much darker and barred with
dusky, the rest dotted with the same; lower part of neck, sides of
body, fore part of back, and outer scapulars, undulated with dusky and
yellowish-white, the bands much larger and semicircular on the fore
part of the neck and breast; the latter white; abdomen faintly and
minutely undulated with brownish-grey; elongated scapulars
brownish-grey, broadly margined with brownish-red; hind part of back
brownish-black, rump and upper and lower tail-coverts bluish-black;
anterior smaller wing-coverts light grey undulated with dusky, middle
coverts deep chestnut-red; primary coverts brownish-grey, outer
secondary coverts darker and tinged with chestnut, the rest black,
excepting the inner which are grey; primaries and inner elongated
secondaries brownish-grey, of which colour also are the inner webs of
the rest; part of the outer webs, of five of the outer black, and
their terminal margins, white, of which colour are the whole outer
webs of the three next to the inner elongated quills; tail
brownish-grey, the feathers margined with paler. Female with the bill
dusky along the ridge, upper part of head brownish-black, the feathers
edged with light reddish-brown; a streak over the eye, the cheeks, the
upper part of the neck all round, light yellowish-red tinged with
grey, and marked with small longitudinal dusky streaks, which are
fainter on the throat, that part being greyish-white; the rest of the
neck, the sides, all the upper parts, and the lower rump-feathers
brownish-black broadly margined with yellowish-red; wing-coverts
brownish-grey, edged with paler; wing with the speculum fainter;
tail-feathers and their coverts dusky, laterally obliquely indented
with pale brownish-red, and margined with reddish-white.
_Male_, 21-3/4, 35. _Female_, 19-1/4, 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.
Gadwall, Anas strepera, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p. 120.
Anas strepera, Bonap. Syn. p. 383.
Anas (Chauliodus) strepera, Gadwall, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor.
Amer. v. ii. p. 440.
Gadwall or Grey, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 383.
Gadwall Duck, Anas strepera, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 353.