Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America

The book that made American bird-watching possible in the field: keys, plumages, songs and habits for every species of the East, by the man who ran ornithology at the American Museum.

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Colonel N (S Goss writes that as a rule)

S. Goss writes that, as a rule, Widgeons are "not shy, and their note, a sort of whew, whew, whew, uttered while feeding and swimming, enables the hunter to locate them in the thickest growth of water plants; and when in the air the whistling noise made by their wings heralds their approach." They are fond of wild celery, which they procure by robbing the Canvasback and other diving Ducks, " snatching their catch from their bills the moment their heads appear above the water." 139. Anas carolinensis Gmel. GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Ad. 8. -Chin black, sides of the head from the eye to the nape shining green, rest of the head and neck rufous-chestnut; breast washed with vinaceous and spotted with black; belly white; sides finely marked with wavy black and white lines; middle under tail-coverts black, lateral ones creamy buff; upper back like the sides, lower back grayish fuscous; a white bar in front of the bend of the wing; wing-coverts brownish gray, tipped with ochraceous buffy. Ad. .-Top of the head brownish fuscous, margined with cinnamon; throat and sides of the neck white, finely spotted with black; breast and sides washed with cinnamon and spotted or barred with black; belly and under tail-coverts white, sometimes spotted with black; back fuscous, the feathers with crescent -shaped marks of ochraceous buffy, and bordered with grayish; wings as in the male. L., 14.50; W., 7.00; Tar., 1.10; B., 1.35.

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