182 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ing or depressing his course is imitated exactly by all those which follow, and so the 

 line has frequent wavy motions like currents passing through it, as when a ribbon is 

 held in the fingers and a flip given to it which causes it to undulate along its whole 

 length. 



Doctor Elliot (1898) has well described the note of this species as a 

 "hoarse guttural rolling sound, as if the letter R was uttered in 

 the throat with a vibration of the tongue at the same time. It is 

 easily imitated, and the bird readily responds to the call of its 

 supposed relative." Rev. J. H. Langillc (1884) gives an entirely 

 different impression of it ; he writes : 



Not infrequently the males are quite noisy, loudly uttering their deep-toned me-ow, 

 which is the precise imitation of the voice of a large cat. The female, especially if 

 rising from her neat or out of the water, has a loud, clear squak, on a higher tone than 

 that of the mallard or dusky duck, and so peculiar as to be readily identified by the 

 ear, even if the bird is not in sight. 



Doctor Yorke (1899) confirms this impression, saying: "The 

 redheads' cry whilst floating about in compact bunches resembles the 

 mewing or cry of a cat, but their call is a very modest quack." 



Fall. — The fall migration of the redhead follows soon after that 

 of the canvasback and spreads out over much the same route; from 

 its main breeding grounds in the central part of the continent, the 

 prairie regions of southern Canada, and the Northern States, it mi- 

 grates almost east, through the region of the Great Lakes to the coasts 

 of southern New England, southeast to the Chesapeake Bay region, 

 and south through the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf coast; there ia 

 also probably a southwestward migration to the Pacific coast and a 

 southward one to Mexico. Redheads migrate in large flocks by 

 themselves or late in the season they often mingle with scaup ducks. 

 They become very abundant in the fall along the southern coast of 

 New England, especially in the large fresh or brackish ponds on 

 Marthas Vineyard, where several thousand of them are reported as 

 congregating every fall; some of the ponds, which are controlled by 

 sportsmen, are planted with Vallisneria, Potamogeton, and other duck 

 foods which have attracted an increased number of redheads and 

 scaup ducks. A party of four men are said to have killed 110 of 

 these two species in five hours' shooting. 



Game. — Redheads are abundant on the Chesapeake, Avhere they 

 are shot in large numbers with the canvasbacks from the batteries; 

 when feeding on wild celery their flesh is of fine flavor. They are 

 very popular as game birds on the lakes and sloughs of the Mississippi 

 Valley; they travel about in large flocks and are easily decoyed to 

 wooden decoys set near the hunter's well-concealed blind or sink box. 

 A net set on poles around the gunner's boat or duck float may be 

 rendered quite inconspicuous by weaving branches or grass into it so 

 that it will match its surroundings ; the ducks do not seem to notice 



