42 NORTH AMERICAN DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 



south to southern California (Ventura and Los Angeles counties), and 

 east to Ruby Lake, Nevada, and Rush Lake, Utah, The redhead used 

 to breed not uncommonly in the great marshes of the lake region of 

 southeastern Wisconsin, but now it is restricted to a few localities, 

 one of which is Lake Koshkonong. It has bred on the St. Clair Flats 

 of Michigan and Ontario. 



Only a few pass as far north as 54° latitude, the northern range of 

 the species thus being more restricted than that of any other Canadian 

 duck. A stray was taken in 1896 on Kadiak Island, Alaska, the only 

 record on the Pacific coast north of Vancouver Island, and an indi- 

 vidual was taken in the fall in southeastern Labrador, It is not yet 

 recorded in Newfoundland, and is a rare migrant in the Maritime 

 Provinces. 



Winter range. — The principal winter home of the redhead is from 

 Texas, along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, to Chesapeake Ba}^; a few 

 winter on Long Island, and a still smaller number around Cape 

 Cod and Lakes Ontario and Erie; the species winters in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley north to Illinois and Kansas, and in the West to 

 New Mexico, Arizona — rarely Utah — Nevada, and southern British 

 Columbia, almost as far north as it breeds. The redhead is not 

 unconnnon in winter in the Viilley of Mexico, but is quite rare on the 

 west coast south to Manzanillo and southern Lower California. It is 

 accidental in Jamaica. 



Spring migration. — The redhead moves north with the great bodj'- 

 of river ducks soon after the first open water appears. Average dates 

 of arrival are: Oberlin, Ohio, March 10 (earliest March 4, 1904); cen- 

 tral Indiana, March 13 (earliest March 6, 1887); southern Ontario, 

 March 24 (earliest March 14, 1898); Keokuk, Iowa, March 7 (earliest 

 February 13, 1898); central Iowa, March 18 (earliest, March 8, 1887); 

 southern Wisconsin, March 30 (earliest March 10, 1898); Heron Lake, 

 Minn,, March 26; central Nebraska, March 10 (earliest February 10, 

 1896); northern Montana, April 13 (earliest April 7, 1895); southern 

 Manitoba, April 21 (earliest April 12, 1903). Eggs have been found 

 in southern California in May; at Horicon Lake, Wisconsin, May 24; 

 in northern North Dakota, June 1; at Rush Lake, Saskatchewan, 

 June 15. 



J^all migration. — The movement of the redhead exhibits in extreme 

 degree a phase of migration, shared to a lesser extent by several other 

 species, in which the course taken is at a wide angle from the normal 

 southern one. Lake Winnipeg marks the extreme northeastern part 

 of the district where it breeds commonly, and yet the species is a 

 fairly common fall migrant along the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod 

 southward. The individuals that visit Cape Cod take an almost 

 eastern course, or at least go 3 miles east for every mile south. From 

 the nearest breeding grounds to the lower Hudson Valley, which is 



