102 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



eye and spreads backward covering the whole hinder half of the head; feathers of hind 

 head and neck thick, bushy and elongated, whence the name Bufflehead. Back, wings, 

 and tail mostly black or slaty black, the wing with a large white patch formed by the 

 wing-coverts, secondaries and outer scapulars. Entire under parts from neck to tail, 

 pure white, sometimes washed with grayish on the hinder belly and under tail-coverts 

 and a few of the posterior fiank feathers sharply edged with jet black. Bill black, feet and 

 legs yellow. Adult female: Upper parts brownish black, deepest on head and rump; 

 under parts white, washed with gray on chest, sides and flanks; speculum and part of the 

 greater coverts white, as also a patch on the side of head below and behind the eye. Bill 

 and feet black. 



Length of male 14.25 to 15.25 inches; wing 6.75 to 6.90; culmen 1.10 to 1.15. Length 

 of female 12.25 to 13.50; wing 5.90 to 6; culmen .95 to 1. 



51. Old-squaw. Harelda hyemalis (Linn.). (154) 



Synonyms: Old-wife, Long-tailed Duck, Sou'-southerly, Coween, or Cowheen, 

 Cockawee, Squealing Duck, Winter Duck. — Anas hyemalis, Linn., 1758. — Anas glacialis, 

 Wils., 1814. — Harelda glacialis, Steph., 1824, and many authors. — Fuligula glacialis, Aud. 



Figure 26. 



The male is known from any other duck by its striking black and white 

 plumage, comparatively short neck, and very long middle tail-feathers. 



Distribution. — -Northern Hemisphere; in North America south to the 

 Potomac and the Ohio (more rarely to Florida and Texas), and California; 

 breeds far northward. 



This duck is by no means uncommon during cold weather on the Great 

 Lakes and is found with more or less regularity on many of the smaller 

 inland lakes and streams. The fact that it winters regularly wherever 

 open water can be found has given it the name of Winter Duck, a name 



Fig. 26. Old Squaw. 

 From Baird, Brewer & Ridgway's Water Birds of Nortli America. (Little, Brown & Co.) 



more generally applied to this than to any other one of the several species 

 which stay with us through the winter. It is most often found in fair 

 sized flocks and these frequently unite into bands of several hundred in 

 favorable localities. It is extremely noisy and the constant gabbling 

 undoubtedly has earned it the names of Old-squaw and Old-wife. 



Like its relatives it feeds largely on fish and dives to considerable depths 

 in order to secure them. The late Dr. J. W. Velie told me that this was the 

 regular winter duck on Lake Michigan off shore from St. Joseph, being fairly 



