158 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



tips; rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail dusky grayish brown; anal region paler; lower tail- 

 coverts whitish. Bill grayish, the end black; iris yellow; feet grayish. Downy young: 

 Above, ochreous olive-brown, indistinctly relieved by an oiive-yellow spot back of each 

 wing, one on the hind border of each arm- wing, and one on each side of the rump; entire 

 head and neck (except pileum and nape), with whole lower parts deep, buff-yellow, paler 

 and less yellow on abdomen and anal region. No dark markings whatever on side of head. 

 Bill and feet light colored (brownish in dried skin). 



Total length, about 20. 00-21. 00 inches; extent, 33.00; wing, about 8.50; culmen, 2.05-2.25; 

 greatest width of bill, .75-.85; tarsus, 1.60-1.65; middle toe, 2.30-2.40. 



The Red-heads arrive in Illinois from the south in March, and 

 continue northward to their breeding grounds, which extend 

 from Wisconsin, Michigan, and others of the "northern tier" of 

 States, to the Fur Countries. They return in October. 



Where it can obtain the same food, the Red-head is quite as 

 good eating as the celebrated Canvas-back {A. vallisneria), 

 though it never commands so high a price in the markets. In 

 short, it is more the costly character of the latter, together 

 with its high reputation, than any real superiority of its flesh, 

 that creates the greater demand for it. 



The Red-head was found nesting on the St. Clair flats, Michi- 

 gan, by Mr. W. H. Collins, who thus describes some of its 

 breeding habits: 1 



"The past season I had the good fortune to find two nests 

 of the Red-head Duck (Aythya americcma), containing respec- 

 tively seven and eight eggs. The first was placed on some 

 drifted rushes on a sunken log, and was composed of flags and 

 rushes evidently taken from the pile of drift upon the log, as 

 they were short pieces, so short, in fact, that the nest when 

 lifted with the hands fell in pieces. The nest was about four 

 inches deep, and lined with down from the female. This nest 

 contained seven fresh eggs of a creamy color, and [sic\ varied in 

 measurements from 2.30X1.75 to 2.22X1.66 inches, and were 

 of a uniform oval shape, very little smaller at one end. The 

 other nest was built similar to a Coot's nest, that is, of flags 

 and grass interwoven at the base of a bunch of flags, growing 

 in water three or four feet deep. It was built in such a way 

 that the nest would rise and fall with the water. This nest also 

 contained down and eight fresh eggs, uniform in size, shape, and 

 color with the others. The birds, male and female, were flying 

 around, and often came quite close to me. The cry of the 



1 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, v, 1880, pp. 61-C2. 



