CINNAMON TEAL. Querquedula cyanoptera (Vieillot)

Field characters.—Small for a duck; wing with a large blue patch on forward part. Male (except in mid-summer, when like female): Entire head and whole under surface rich chestnut brown; upper surface streaked with light and dark brown. Female: Upper surface dark brown with lighter feather edgings; breast and under surface mottled on a light brown ground.

Occurrence.—Summer visitant along both bases of the Sierras. Noted at Mono Lake, September 20, 1915, and May 30 and June 3, 1916.

Cinnamon Teal are more likely to be found in the Yosemite region during the summer season than any other species of duck. As they breed at Laws, Inyo County, not far southeast of Mono Lake, they probably nest also at Mono Lake itself. The bright chestnut or deep cinnamon plumage of the male makes him easy to identify even at a long distance. A flock of twenty-five was noted on September 20, 1915, not on Mono Lake proper, but in a small lagoon formed by a barrier beach at the edge of the main body of water. Presumably they were in quest of brine-shrimps. Like the Mallard; these birds feed by 'tipping up.'