BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 117 



probable that most of the thousands of Redheads which reach 

 southeastern Massachusetts come here from western Canada 

 by way of the Great Lakes, and return by the same route. 

 We know that many individuals come east by this route, and 

 they are so rare northeast of us on the Atlantic coast that 

 this seems the only tenable theory that will account for the 

 number that visit Massachusetts. A sudden freeze, closing 

 up the ponds, is likely to send the birds south. 



The Redhead seems to be quite as fond of wild celery as is 

 the Canvas-back, and is quite as capable of procuring the 

 submerged buds and root stocks as is its more celebrated con- 

 gener, but it is believed to feed less on the buds and more on 

 the leaves. Its resemblance in appearance and flavor to the 

 celery-fed Canvas-back makes it a desirable bird for the 

 market, and it is highly prized by the gunner. 



The Redhead, though classed among the Bay and Sea 

 Ducks, feeds mainly in large fresh-water lakes on aquatic 

 plants. It is a good diver, and usually keeps well away from 

 shore, where it dives to the bottom to pull up the wild celery 

 and other vegetation on which it feeds. Sometimes it feeds 

 in the mud and marsh along the shore, where it takes insects 

 and other forms of animal life. Audubon says that he has 

 found stomachs of this species crammed with tadpoles, young 

 water lizards and blades of the grasses growing about the 

 bank, also acorns, beechnuts, snails and shells of small fresh- 

 water clams. It feeds by night as well as by day, is usually 

 not shy and is readily decoyed. If wounded it will dive and 

 hide among the marsh grass, or sometimes even cling to the 

 vegetation on the bottom, like a Scoter, until life is extinct. 



