68 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



food, but spends the winters on the coast of New England in email numbers along 

 with rubripes. Reaches great size at times. Largest male 3 pounds 10 ounces; largest 

 female 2 pounds 15 ounces (Squibnocket, 1919). More difference in size between 

 sexes than in rubripes 1 Comes readily to live decoys, no matter how extreme the 

 voice may be (too high or too low); and is more loquacious than the red-legged form. 



A. rubripes rubripes. — Late migrant never becomes localized except near eea, and 

 where marine food in the form of small moUusca is abundant. Very seldom resorts 

 to small ponds or bogs, but likes large open sheets of fresh water near ocean, to which 

 it often makes daily trips to drink and rest but not to feed. Is better able to sit off- 

 shore in rough seas; and in general appears a more rugged bird with heavier feathering 

 and superior resistance to extreme cold. In winter, it does not depend on ponds for 

 fresh water, but obtains a sufficient supply in small springs about salt meadows at low 

 tide. 



This is a much more wary bird, is more silent itself, and comes less easily to live 

 decoys, toward which it manifests an instinctive fear, especially if they be loud or 

 shrill callers. In the salt meadows the best gunners prefer seaweed bunches or canvas 

 sacks, and find the live decoys useless, especially late in the season. 



When a flock of rubripes alights on a pond near a shooting stand, they nearly always 

 keep at a safe distance until perfectly satisfied of their surroundings. Then, more 

 often than not, they will swim away from the stand and its live decoys. If they 

 approach the stand, which they do with the utmost caution, and with necks erect, 

 they are not apt to keep closely together as tristis does. 



Extreme weights not much above that of tristis. Heaviest male noted by myself, 

 3 pounds 12 ounces. Average is a good deal heavier than tristis, females perhaps 

 more nearly size of males than in tristis, but no figures at hand to bear out this point. 



To sum up the evidence it does not seem to have been proven 

 that a northern race, with a known breeding range, exists; but it 

 does seem to have proven that the characters ascribed to it, are 

 to be accounted for, at least partially if not wholly, by age variations. 

 I am still prepared to believe that a northern race exists, but we 

 need more evidence to prove it. 



ANAS FULVIGULA FULVIGIILA Ridsway. 



FLORIDA DUCK. 



HABITS. 



Up to about 1S74, when Mr. Ridgway described this species, the 

 dusky ducks of eastern North America, from Texas to Labrador, 

 were all regarded as one species. This well-marked southern species, 

 characterized by its smaller size, lighter color, and particularly by 

 its immaculate buffy throat, inhabits Florida and the other Gulf 

 States. It is not known to intergrade with the northern black 

 duck, and there is a considerable hiatus between the breeding ranges 

 of the two species. The southern species has since been split into two 

 subspecies, the Florida duck, restricted to Florida, and the mottled 

 duck found in Louisiana and Texas; whether these two forms inter- 

 grade in the intervening States, or where they meet, does not seem to 

 have been determined. Should a hiatus bo found to occur between 



