52 Birds of Colorado 



also winter at Barr. It has been seen at Loveland from February 

 2nd to March 6th ; on the western slope it reaches Grand Junction 

 from February 27th to March 6th, and returns between September 

 28th and October 22nd, according to Sullivan (Rockwell). It has 

 also been noted from Fort Lyon (Cooke), El Paso eo. (Aiken collection) 

 and Boulder (Henderson), while Warren informs me he saw two in 

 the fall of 1902, on Decker's Lake, near Crested Butte, at about 9,000 

 feet. This is the only mountain record I have met with. 



Hersey and Rockwell report that this Duck nests in some numbers 

 at Barr, though it is far more common on migration. A clutch of 

 seven eggs, believed to be this species, was taken by I. C. Hall at 

 Greeley on June 14th, 1903, and were presented by the collector to 

 the Colorado College Museum. 



Habits. — The Redhead is usually found in considerable 

 flocks on open water, often associating with Canvas- 

 backs and other species ; it is a diving duck and obtains 

 most of its food — aquatic grasses, mollusca, small Crustacea 

 and insects — in this way, though sometimes it dibbles 

 as well in the shallows. 



It is, as a rule, very good-eating, rivalling to the taste 

 of some the Canvas-back, for which it is often substituted. 

 Its nest is placed on the ground near the water, or some- 

 times among reeds over water like a Coot's. Hall 

 describes the nest he took at Greeley as being placed 

 in a clump of rushes over open water, eight inches 

 deep, and as being made of dry flags and lined with 

 down. The eggs, in this case seven, but often ten in 

 number, are dull white with a greenish tinge and average 

 2-40 X 1-70. 



Canvas-back. Marila vallisneria. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 147 — Colorado Records — Aiken 72, p. 210; 

 Morrison 89, p. 165 ; Cooke 97, pp. 18, 55, 195 ; 00, p. 43 ; Felger 02, 

 p. 294 ; 05, p. 421; Henderson 03, p. 234 ; 09, p. 226 ; Rockwell 08, p. 158. 



Description. — Male — Resembling generally the Redhead but dis- 

 tinguished by the colour of the head and neck which is darker and 

 browner and by the blackish chin and crowTX ; the markings of the back 

 are more silvery ; this colour prevails over the wavy, dusky lines which 

 are much narrower and more broken up ; finally the bill is longer 



