94 BULLETIN 126, 'JNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



taken in Massachusetts, as entirely vegetarian, consisting of " pond- 

 weed, wild celery, water-lily seeds (5rascma), burweed, and smart- 

 weed seeds {Polygonum Jiydropiper), also "mineral matter 65 per 

 cent." Dawson (1909) says that in Washington, "in late January 

 and February, they confine their feeding largely to the water-soaked 

 fields, digging up the young grass with their bills and eating roots 

 and all." 



Its well-knoA\-n habit of robbing the canvasback on its feeding 

 grounds in Chesapeake Bay has been often described ; the baldpate, 

 being a poor diver and yet extravagantly fond of the succulent roots 

 of the, so-called, wild celery, has to be content Vv'ith what small bits 

 of this delicacy the canvasback lets dro|> or what it can steal from 

 this expert diver on its return to the surface. In its winter home in 

 the Southern States it feeds largely in the broken-down rice fields, 

 where it finds an abundance of food and becomes very fat. Audu- 

 bon (1840) says that it eats "beechnuts, small fry, and leeches." 

 Warren (1890) found that two baldpates, taken in Pennsylvania, 

 "had fed almost entirely on insects, chiefly beetles and crickets." 

 Mr. F. C. Baker C1889), who dissected a large number, taken in 

 Florida, found that their stomachs " contained shells of Truvcatella 

 suhcylindrica (Say) and small seeds.'' 



Mr. Douglas C. Mabbott (1920) says: 



The vegetable tood of the baldpate for the eight months from September to April 

 averaged S3. 23 per cent. This consisted of the following items in the order of their 

 importance: Pondweeds, 42.82 per cent; grasses, 13.9; algae, 7.71; sedges, 7.41; 

 wild celerj' and waterweed, 5.75; water milfoils, 3.48; duckweeds, 2.2; smartweeds, 

 1.47; arrow grass, ().3C; water lilies, 0.2G: coontail, 0.24; and miscellaneous, 7.63 

 per cent. 



Animal food amounted to ().77 per cent of the contents of the 229 baldpate stomachs 

 included in the computation. Even this figure in probably unduly large, because 

 the greater part of tlie animal matter consisted of snails found in the gizzards of a 

 series of ducks from sovithern Oregon, the only lot of birds found feeding almost 

 exclusively upon such food. More than nine-tenths of the animal food (G.25 per 

 cent of the total) consisted of niollusks, the remainder being made up of insects 

 (0.42 per cent) and miscellaneous matter (n. 1 per cent). 



Behavior. — When alarmed the baldpate rises quickly from the 

 water, almost perpendicularly, making a rattling sound with its 

 wings, and flies rapidly away. Its flight is swift, strong, and direct; 

 when migrating or v/hen flying to or from its breeding grounds it 

 flies in small flocks of irregular formation and at no great height 

 from the ground or Avater. On its breeding grounds it is quite tame, 

 but during the shooting season it becomes very shy. The drake is 

 easily recognized by its striking color pattern, displaying so much 

 white in the wings, the white crown, and the Avhite belly. But the 

 duck might easily be mistaken for the female gadwall, though it has 

 a white unspotted breast and shows more A\hite in the greater wing 



