In feeding they immerse their neck and the anterior part of the body, generally swimming closer together than other Ducks, in consequence of which habits they are easily neared and often shot in great numbers at a single discharge. During their stay in those districts they feed on the roots and seeds of grasses, water-insects, beech-nuts, small fry, and leeches, and are not so delicate as an article of food as those procured in the rice-fields of South Carolina, or in the plantations of Louisiana and Florida. On their return in spring (for in mild winters they remain all the season in Kentucky), they generally continue until the end of April, and usually pair before they depart; which induces me to believe that numbers of them breed within the northern limits of the United States, although I have not heard of any having actually been seen doing so.
On the lakes near New Orleans, as well as on the Chesapeake, they are not unfrequently found in company with the Canvass-back Ducks. Wilson mentions their being partially supplied with food by the industry of the latter; but they manage very well in most parts without such assistance. When in full security, the Bald-pates feed at all hours of the day; but in thickly inhabited parts of the country, they usually seek for food at night or early in the morning.
The flight of this species is rather swift, well sustained, and accompanied by the whistling sound of the wings usual in birds of this family. They move in flocks of moderate size, and without much care as to the disposition of their ranks, being sometimes extended into a front line, sometimes in single file, frequently mingled confusedly, and flying at a moderate height, whether over the land or over the water. When they are first started, they fly almost perpendicularly, in a hurried and rather irregular manner. They walk prettily and with ease. After heavy falls of rain in our Southern States, they often alight in the corn fields, in company with other Ducks, where the ploughed earth, being quite moist and soft, yields them an abundant supply of worms and insects, as well as grains of corn, pease, and other equally nutritious substances.
Dr Richardson informs us that this species breeds in the woody districts of the Fur Countries, up to their most northern limits, in latitude 80°; and Dr Townsend states that it is abundant on the Columbia River; but he has not furnished me with any account of its breeding, and I have not had an opportunity of observing it during the season of propagation, as I left the Texas without having found a nest or young.
Anas Americana, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 526.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 861.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 384.
American Widgeon, Anas Americana, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 86, pl. 69, fig 4.
Mareca Americana, Stephens, American Widgeon, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. ii. p. 445.
American Widgeon, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 389.
Adult Male. Plate CCCXLV. Fig. 1.
Bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base, depressed towards the end, the sides nearly parallel, the tip rounded. Upper mandible with the frontal angles short and obtuse, the dorsal line at first sloping, then concave, at the end decurved, the ridge broad and flat at the base, then broadly convex, the edges soft, with about fifty-five internal lamellæ, the unguis obovate, curved abruptly at the end. Nostrils sub-basal, lateral, near the ridge, oblong, pervious. Lower mandible flattened, its angle very long and rather narrow, the dorsal line very short, slightly convex, the edges soft, with about seventy lamellæ.