LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMEEICAN WILD FOWL. 149 



or splashing along the surface of the water, as if wounded, and often 

 near enough for us to have hit her with a stick, quacking excitedly 

 all the time. I never saw a finer exhibition of parental devotion than 

 was shown by her total disregard of her own safety, which did not 

 cease until we left the locality entirely. I have had several similar 

 experiences elsewhere. If alarmed, when swimming in the sloughs, 

 the young seldom attempt to dive though they can do so, if necessary; 

 they more often swim into the reeds and hide while the mother bird 

 attracts the attention of the intruder. Doctor Coues (1874) says 

 that during July in Montana — 



the young were just beginning to fly, in most instances, while the old birds were for 

 the most part deprived of flight by molting of the quills. Many of the former were 

 killed with sticks, or captured by hand, and afforded welcome variation of our hard 

 fare. On invasion of the grassy or reedy pools where the ducks were, they generally 

 crawled shyly out upon the prairie around, and there squatted to hide; so that we 

 procured more from the dry grass surrounding than in the pools themselves. I have 

 sometimes stumbled thus upon several together, crouching as close as possible, and 

 caught them all in my hands. 



Dr. Harold C. Bryant (1914) relates the following incident: 



On May 21 a pintail with 10 dov.-ny young was discovered on the bank of a pond. 

 When first disturbed she was brooding her young on dry ground about 10 feet from 

 the water. The moment she flew the downy young assumed rigidly the same poses 

 they had variously held beneath the mother. Some were standing nearly erect 

 whereas others were crouching, but all were huddled close together. They remained 

 perfectly motionless while, leaving Kendall to watch, I went for the camera. I had 

 gone over a hundred yards before they moved. By the time I returned they had 

 wandered off about 10 yards. They marched in single file and every now and then 

 huddled close together posing motionless for a few moments. 



Fiumages. — The downy young is grayer and browner than other 

 young surface-feeding ducks and thus easily recognized. The crown 

 is dark, rich " clove brown " ; a broad superciliary stripe of grayish 

 white extends from the lores to the occiput; below this the side of 

 the head is mainly grayish white, fading to pure white on the throat 

 and chin, with a narrow postocular stripe of "clove brown" and a 

 paler and broader stripe of the same below it. The back is "clove 

 brown," darkest on the rump, with grayish or buli'y tips on the down 

 of the upper back; the rump and scapular spots are white, the latter 

 sometimes elongated into stripes. The lower parts are grayish v/liite, 

 palest in the center. The chest, and sometimes the sides of the head, 

 are suffused with pinkish buff, but never with yellow. The colors 

 become duller and paler as the bird grows older. When the young 

 bird is about 3 weeks old the first feathers appear on the flanks and 

 scapulars and the tail becomes noticeable; about a week later 

 feathers begin to show on the rump, breast, head, and neck, and the 

 bird is fully grown before its contour ])lumage is complete; the flight 

 feathers are the last to be acquired. The length of time required to 



