lAVE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD TOW].. 171 



March 25; Massachusetts, pastern. March 24; Quebec, Montreal, 

 April 24; Iowa, central, March 20; Ohio, northern, April 1 ; Michigan, 

 Petersburg, March 15; Ontario, southern, April 17, and Ottawa, 

 April 22: Minnesota, Heron Lake. April 4: Manitoba, southern, 

 April 15. 



Foil migratwn.—AwGY&gQ dates of departure: Ontario, Ottawa, 

 October 27; Quebec, Montreal, November 1; Maine, southern, Octo- 

 ber 27; Massachusetts, Essex County, December 16; Iowa, southern, 

 November 9. Late dates of departure: Ontario, Ottawa, November 

 7: Maine, southern, November 2; Massachusetts, Charles River, 

 December 28; Iowa, southern, November 21 ; Ohio, Loraine Reservoir, 

 December 3. 



Casual records. — Accidental in Bermuda (December 16, 1846). 



Egg dates. — New England and New York: Eighteen records, May 4 

 to June 17; nine records. May 13 to 22. New Jersey: Four records, 

 A})ril 17 to May 16. Florida: Four records, April 8 to May 14. 

 Illinois and Iowa: Seven records, April 17 to June 4. Minnesota, 

 Michigan and Wisconsin: Seven records. May 10 to 30. 



NETTA RUFINA (Pallas). 



RTJFOUS-CRESTED DUCK. 



HABITS. 



This beautiful European duck has but a slight claim to a place on 

 our list. About all we know of it, as an American bird, is contained 

 in the following statement by Mr. Robert Ridgway (1881): 



About nine years since (February 2, 1872), Mr. George A. Boardman, of Calais, 

 Maine, sent to the Smithsonian Institution a mounted specimen of a duck obtained 

 in Fulton Market, New York City, and supposed to have been shot on Long Island 

 Sound, which he was unable to determine satisfactorily, but which he supposed to 

 be a hybrid between the redhead {Aethyia americana) and some other species. The 

 specimen was in immature plumage, with the feathers of the first livery much worn, 

 while those of the new molt, which were generally mterspersed, indicated a very 

 different garb when the molt should have been completed. At the time the specimen 

 was received at the Smithsonian, I (also supposing it to be a hybrid) made com- 

 parisons with nearly, if not quite, all the American species of ducks, but was unable 

 to get the slightest clue to its parentage. It was then put back in the case and not 

 again tliought of until a few days ago, when in removing the specimens with a view 

 to their rearrangement I happened to take the one in question in one hand and an 

 adult female of the European rufous-crested duck (Fuligula rufma) in the other; 

 and having the two thus in a very favorable position for comparison, I at once per- 

 ceived a striking similarity in general appearance and in the form of the bill, which 

 induced me to extend the examination to an adult male, the result being that no 

 question remained of the bird in question being an immature male of F. rufina, a 

 species liitherto not detected in North America. 



Yarrell (1871) observes that " it may be doubted if the presence 

 of this solitary individual in the United States was due to natural 



