90 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



wild rice swamps and grassy marshes with Mallards, Teal, and other marsh- 

 loving speQies. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Head mainly metallic green and purple above and pure white below, 

 with a long, full occipital crest of the same colors. Chin and throat pure white extending 

 upward and backward in two pairs of crescents, the anterior ending back of the eyes, 

 the posterior nearly meeting on the back of neck beneath crest. A narrow white Hne on 

 either side, starting from the forehead, runs backward over the eye and to tip of crest, 

 while a broader white Une starts behind the eye and also terminates in the crest. A black 

 collar separates the white throat from the chest, which is rich purplish chestnut, marked 

 with triangular white spots, very small in front but increasing in size toward the breast 

 and belly, which are white and unspotted. A vertical white bar on each side of the breast, 

 bordered behind by a velvet black bar of equal or greater width. Sides and flanks finely 

 cross-lined with black on a yellowish gromid color, the hindmost flank feathers beautifully 

 banded with crescent-like bars of black and white. Upper parts, including wings and tail 

 greenish-black or brownish-black, with metallic reflections of green, purple and bronze; 

 speculum metallic blue-green with a white bar behind; primaries frosted with wliite on 

 outer edge and tipped with metallic blue-green. Sides of base of tail purplish chestnut. 



Adult female: Similar as to wings and tail but without crest and lacking the purplish 

 chestnut of lower parts and the cross-lined flanks. The chin and belly are white as also 

 a ring around the eye and stripe behind it. Rest of head and neck gray; chest mottled 

 and streaked with yellowish-white and brown. Yomig resembling the female at first, 

 but the young males soon showing signs of the characteristic throat-patch and crest. 



Length of male 19 to 20.50 inches; wing 9 to 9.50; culmen 1.40. Female slightly smaller. 



43. Redhead. Marila americana (Eyton). (146) 



Synonyms: Pochard, American Pochard, Raft Duck. — Anas ferina, Wils., 1814. — 

 Fuligula ferina, Bonap., 1828. — Aythyaferina var. americana, Allen, 1872. — Aethyia 

 americana, B. B. and R., 1884. — Fuligula americana, Eyton, 1838. 



The adult male can be confounded with nothing but the Canvasback, 

 from which it is easily separated by the shape of the bill and the clear 

 red head without any black. The "canvas" pattern of the back more- 

 over, is made of black and white cross lines of about equal width, while 

 in the Canvasback the light lines are wider than the black ones. The 

 females and young of the year are not readily separated except by the 

 characters of the bill. 



Distribution. — North America, breeding from California, southern 

 Michigan(?), and Maine northward. 



The Redhead is well known to sportsmen throughout the state, but is 

 abundant only during the migrations, and then mainly near the Great 

 Lakes, and particularly along the east side of the state. It does occur 

 sometimes on the smaller inland lakes, but, barring the accident of heavy 

 storms, its movements are governed largely by the abundance of food. 

 It is hunted extensively along Saginaw Bay, St. Clair Flats, Detroit River, 

 and the Monroe Marshes on Lake Erie, the latter point being one of the 

 most famous shooting grounds for Redheads and Canvasbacks in the 

 entire west. The birds are now shot mainly from blinds and over decoys, 

 less often from boats which float or sneak among the flocks. 



The Redhead is a deep water species, rarely found along the margins 

 of ponds or streams, but usually gathering in large flocks or "rafts" on 

 the open lakes at a distance from shore, where it is constantly diving for 

 vegetable food on which it subsists almost entirely. It travels in v-shaped 

 flocks like geese, and flies with great rapidity, but the common statement 

 that its speed reaches 100 miles per hour is certainly a gross exaggeration. 

 It is safe to say that no species of duck when migrating flies more than 



