156 iVATER FOWL. 



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 become 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 Red Head regularly takes a "constitutional." The 

 flocks, that have been massed together during the night 

 ' X 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 up and 

 down, at a considerable height over the water. Some- 

 times these morning and evening promenades are per- 

 formed at a great elevation, so that the movement of the 

 wings is hardly perceptible. On such occasions they ap- 

 pear like a dark ribbon against the sky, and the compari- 

 son is strengthened by the fact that every movement of 

 the leader elevating 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. 



This species is a deep-water Duck and keeps out in the 

 center of rivers or lakes, congregating at times in such 

 numbers as to form immense rafts; hence it is sometimes 

 called " Raft Duck." It dives readily and to consider- 

 able depths, and pulls up the grass and roots found on 

 the bottom, returning to the surface to enjoy the fruits 

 of its labor, and not infrequently to find them snatched 

 aw^ay by the ever-active Widgeon, always on the look- 

 out for tid-bits it is unable to dig up for itself. Great 

 flocks of these birds are always in attendance on the Red 



