180 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The scapulars and back are dark gray, edged with brownish, the 

 breast reddish brown, the belly mottled with brown and white, and 

 the head is reddish brown. This is the juvenal plumage in which the 

 sexes are alike and somewhat resemble the adult female; young birds, 

 however, are more mottled, with less clear brown above and less clear 

 white below. The contour feathers are fully acquired and the young 

 bird is nearly fully grown before the wings are fairly started. Young 

 males are generally browner and darker than young females, partic- 

 ularly on the breast and head. By November the black feathers 

 begin to appear on the breast and neck of the young male, each black 

 feather being tipped with brown, which wears off later; in December 

 the red feathers appear in the head and neck, and the gray vermicu- 

 lated feathers in the back, scapulars, and flanks are assumed; and 

 by January, or February at the latest, the plumage is practically 

 adult, though the full perfection of the adult plumage is not acquired 

 for at least another year. The progress toward maturity in the 

 young female is practically the same, though the change is not so 

 conspicuous. Probably young birds breed during their first spring. 



The adult male has a partial echpse plumage, involving a double 

 molt of much of its plumage; the molt into this plumage begins 

 early in August, the flight feathers are shed about the middle or last 

 of August, and the full winter plumage is complete again in October 

 or November. In the eclipse plumage the head and neck become 

 browner, the breast and under parts become mottled, as in the breed- 

 ing female; there are many brown feathers in the back, the rump 

 is largely brownish, and the crissum is veiled with light edgings. 

 The adult female assumes during the nesting season and the sum- 

 mer a more mottled plumage than is worn in the winter; the clear 

 dark brown of the upper parts is veiled with lighter edgings, and the 

 clear white of the under parts is mottled with brownish. 



Food. — The favorite feeding grounds of the redhead during the 

 summer are in the open lakes of the interior where it dives in deep 

 water or in shallower places to obtain the roots and bulbs of aquatic 

 plants or almost any green shoots which it can find; it is not at all 

 particular about its food and is a gluttonous feeder. It also dabbles 

 with the surface-feeding ducks in the muddy shallows where it finds 

 insects, frogs, tadpoles, and even small fishes and water lizards. 

 Audubon (1840) says that "on several occasions "he has "found 

 pretty large acorns and beechnuts in their throats, as well as snails, 

 entire or broken, and fragments of the shells of various small unios, 

 together with much gravel." 



Dr. D. G. EUiot (1898) writes: 



Redheads feed much at night, especially if the moon is shining, and at such 

 times are exceedingly busy, and the splashing of diving birdsi the coming and 

 going of others, and the incessant utterings of their hoarse note, are heard from dark 



