48 Birds of Colorado 



Medano Ranch on July 2nd, so that it probably breeds in the San Luis 

 Valley. On migration it has been noticed by Carter in ]\Iiddle Park 

 and by Smith at Coventrj' (Warren), while there are examples in the 

 Colorado College Museum from El Paso co. and from Barr Lake, near 

 Denver, both obtained in March. 



Habits. — This is a typical fresh-water Duck, haunting 

 wet prairies, mud flats and small pools in preference to 

 large sheets of open water, and obtaining a good deal 

 of its food by dibbhng on the bottom with its head down 

 and its tail and legs sticking up in the air ; it seldom, if 

 ever, dives. 



The eggs, of a buffy or greenish colour, are 7 to 10 in 

 number as a rule, and are laid in a nest made of grasses 

 and hned with down, placed on the ground, usually 

 under the shelter of a bush. They nest early — early 

 May in south Dakota. I have no dates for Colorado. 



Genus AIX. 



Head crested ; bill shorter than the head, hardly equal to the tarsus, 

 narrow and moie or less parallel-sided, with a large terminal and 

 downwardly curved nail, lamelbe few, small and not conspicuous, 

 tail of sixteen feathers broad and rounded at the tips. 



One North American species. 



Wood-Duck, Aix sponsa. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 144 — Colorado Records — Aiken 72, p. 210 ; 

 Morrison 89, p. Ifi5 ; H. G. Smith 95, p. 48 ; Cooke 97, pp. 55, 156, 194 ; 

 06, p. 40 ; Henderson 03, p. 234 ; 07, p. 198 ; 09, p. 226. 



Description. — Male — Head and crest brilhant purple and green with 

 white stripes ; throat white ; chest rich chestnut with rows of white 

 triangles ; sides grey with black and white bars and crescents ; shoulders 

 crossed by Vjlack and white bars ; rest of the upper-parts black, with 

 rich irridescent colours ; iris red, bill pinkish-white, darker at the base, 

 culmen, tip and lower mandible black, feet orange. Length 19-5 

 wing 9-25 ; tail 4-75 ; culmen 1-35 ; tarsus 1-45. 



The female has the head dull grey glossed with green ; the crest, 

 crown, sides of the head and the tliroat white ; the chest brown and 

 the belly white ; the back richly glossed with greyish -brown ; wing 8*60 ; 

 iris brown, bill pltmibeous, black on the culmen, legs yellowish. 



