LIFE HISTORIES OF XORTH AMERICAN WILL) FOWL. 49 



Nesting. — The nest and o<2;*)jri of the New ^lexico chick, so far as I 

 know still remain to be described. Although 1 hunted almost daily 

 during the last half oi May and the first half of June, 1 was not suc- 

 cessful in locating a single nest of this species. 



Young. — On July 20, 1920, in a cat-tail {Typlia latifoiui) s\\am|)of 

 about 7 acres extent, 4 miles southwest of Las Cruces, New Mex- 

 ico, 1 flushed a, female that evid(uitly had young. She flew over the 

 cat-tails in circles while I spent over an hour wading the swamp look- 

 ing for the young, apparently not .-it all afraid of me, as she ]>assed 

 time and time again within a few feet of my head. I did not, however, 

 find the young. On July 27, 1920, a young fully feathered male and 

 an adult female were collected from a flock of 12 individuals that were 

 feeding where the overflow from an irrigation ditch ran into the Rio 

 Grande 5 miles southwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, i'^rom this 

 date on flocks of from It) to 25 young accompanied by old females 

 could be seen feeding along the river bank. Even at this age they 

 were extremely uary, and one could get within range only by the 

 greatest stealth and stalking. 



Food. — The feeding habits of this species are similar to the mallard. 

 They feed along the river banks, in the drainage canals, ponds, and 

 cat-tail swamps. In the sj)ring the flooded alfalfa fields are favorite 

 grounds for food. l^]ver extremely wary, they pass much of the day- 

 time on the mud ilats in the middle of the river. At dusk they seek 

 their favorite feeding grounds, a cat-tail swamp or flooded alfalfa field 

 even though it lie close to a ranch house or small settlement. The 

 food I found to consist of green shoots of alfalfa and cat-tail, grass 

 roots, corn, wheat, and numerous suiall fresh-water shells together 

 with the larger seeds of weeds and grasses. 



Behavior. — -The flight of the New Mexican duck is similiar to that of 

 the mallard, but it is a stronger and somewhat faster flyer. It was 

 during the very hea\'y wdnd storms lasting two or three days that 

 occur in March in southwestern New Mexico that I noticed the great(;r 

 strength of flight of this sj)ecies over the inallard. One could easily 

 distinguish an individual of this species in a Hock of mallards by its 

 darker color and conspicuous pyrite yellow bill. 



While feeding in the ponds and Hooded alfalfa fields it kee|)s u short 

 distance away from the other ducks. Food is obtained in the deeper 

 water by thrusting the head straight down and keeping the ])ody 

 nearly submerged by the use of the feet, the tail only standing 

 straight up above water. I have never seen this duck dive even 

 when wounded. Several times while hunting with decoys on some 

 of the larger ponds, combined flocks of mallards and New Mexican 

 ducks would alight a hundred or more yards beyond the decoys. lOver 

 wary and suspi(;i()us the New Mexican ducks would \oiH\ l\v them- 



