LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 181 



to daylight. They also feed by day, if the weather has been etonny, but on quiet, 

 pleasant days they rarely move about much, but remain quietly out in the open 

 water, sleeping, or dressing their feathers, or occasionally taking a turn beneath the 

 surface as though more in an exploring mood, than for the purpose of seeking food. 



Among the vegetable food of the redhead, Dr. F. Henry Yorke 

 (1899) has recognized in its food the following genera of plants: 

 Vallisneria, Limnohium, Zizania, Iris, NympJmea, NupJiar, Myrio- 

 phyllum, CaUitriche, and Utricularia. 



In its winter home on or near the seacoast it frequents the tidal 

 estuaries, as well as the ponds, and feeds in company with the can- 

 vasback, the scaup ducks, and the baldpate, diving in deep water 

 for the roots, as well as the stems and buds of the wild celery (Val- 

 lisneHa), on which it becomes very fat and its flesh assumes a flavor 

 almost indistinguishable from that of the canvasback. But it does 

 not wholly confine itself to this food, feeding largely on other aquatic 

 plants and on marine animal life, which detracts from the flavor of 

 its flesh. 



Behavior. — Prof. Walter B. Barrows (1912) says of the flight of 

 the redhead : 



It travels in V-shaped flocks like geese, and flies with great rapidity, but the 

 common statement that its speed reaches 100 miles per hour is certainly a gross ex- 

 aggeration. It is safe to say that no species of duck when migrating flies more than 

 50 or 60 miles per hour — most species hardly more than 40 miles. 



Doctor EUiot (1898) writes: 



The flocks rarely alight at first, even when there may be numbers of ducks con- 

 gregated on the water, but traverse the length of the sound or lake as if reconnoiter- 

 ing the entire expanse and trying to select the best feeding ground. After having 

 passed and repassed over the route a few times, the flock begins to lower, and gradu- 

 ally descending, at length the wings are set and the birds sail gradually up to the 

 chosen spot, usually where other ducks are feeding, and drop in their midst with 

 many splashings. But while this is the usual method adopted by newcomers, 

 sometimes the program is changed and the birds, attracted by a large concourse of 

 their relatives, particularly if the day be calm and the sun shining with consider- 

 able heat, will suddenly drop from out the sky with a rapid zigzag course, as if one 

 wing of each duck had been broken, and they cross and recross each other in the 

 rapid descent, their fall accompanied by a loud whirring sound, as the air is forced 

 between the primaries. On such occasions the flock is mixed all up together in a 

 most bewildering manner, until, arriving a few feet above the water, the wings be- 

 come motionless and the birds glide up to and alight by the side of their desired 

 companions. 



Early in the morning, and again late in the afternoon, the redhead regularly takes 

 a " constitutional. " The flocks that have been massed together during the night or 

 the middle of the day, rise from the water, not all together but in companies of 

 several dozen, and stringing themselves out in long, irregular lines, each bird a little 

 behind and to one side of its leader, fly rapidly Tip and down, at a considerable 

 height over the water. Sometimes these morning and evening promenades are 

 performed at a great elevation, so that the movement of the wings is hardly per- 

 ceptible. On such occasions they appear like a dark ribbon against the sky, and 

 the comparison is strengthened by the fact that every movement of the leader elevat- 



