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.