444 ANATID^, 



with floating ice, among which it is seen diving ahnost con- 

 stantly in search of food. When the river is frozen over 

 they seek the head waters of the rapid streams, in the 

 turbulent eddies of which they find abundance of prey. 

 Possessed of a feeling of security arising from the rapidity 

 with which they can dive, they often allow you to go quite 

 near them, though they will then watch every motion, and 

 at the snap of your gun, or on its being discharged, dis- 

 appear with the swiftness of thought, and, perhaps, as 

 quickly rise again within a few yards, as if to ascertain the 

 cause of their alarm. When these birds return to us from 

 the north, the number of the young so much exceeds that 

 of the old, that to find males in full plumage is much more 

 uncommon than toward the time of their departure, when 

 I have thought the males as numerous as the females. 

 Although at times they are very fat, their flesh is fishy and 

 disagreeable ; many of them, however, are off"ered for sale in 

 our markets. The note is a mere croak, much resembling 

 that of the Golden-ej^e, but not so loud." The migrations 

 of this species extend to the Bermudas, Texas, Mexico and 

 Cuba. 



The breeding-range of the Buftel-headed Duck extends 

 throughout the Fur Countries and the northern portions of 

 America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as far south as the 

 State of Maine. So far as is at present known, the nest is, 

 like that of the previous species, placed in the hollow of a 

 tree, and lined with down. One found by Mr. Lockhart on 

 the Yukon river was in the hollow of a poplar-tree, about 

 twenty feet from the ground, and on the 7th of July con- 

 tained ten eggs ; their colour was of an ivory-white with 

 a faint tinge of green ; measurements 2 by 1-5 in. Mr. 

 A. C. Stark describes a nest from which he shot the bird, on 

 the 27th of May, 1882, in West Minnesota, as situated in 

 a hole of an oak-tree, the hollow being only a few inches 

 deep and partly filled with decayed wood, on which lay eight 

 eggs nearly buried in down. The stomach of the Duck was 

 crammed with small red worms. 



In the adult male the bill is bluish-black, narrow, and 



