REDHEAD DUCK. i6i 



slaty-gray. The tail is dusky. The bill is pale blue, 

 black at the tip, the eyes yellow, and the feet are bluish- 

 gray. The abdomen is white. 



The female is a plain brownish duck, almost white on 

 the forehead, chin and sides of the head. The lower 

 neck, sides and flanks are brown, as are the lower parts 

 generally, but the lower tail-coverts are white. The 

 speculum is as in the male. 



Like the canvas-back, the redhead is a bird of gen- 

 eral distribution through North America. It is very 

 common in migration on the Atlantic coast, as well as 

 in the interior and on the Pacific coast. Mr. Ridgway 

 found it common and evidently breeding at Sacra- 

 mento, Cal., in June, 1867, as well as in Nevada, where 

 he saw beautiful decoys made of its skin by the Piute 

 Indians. It is said not to reach Alaska in summer, but 

 is found breeding throughout the Hudson's Bay coun- 

 try, east of the Rocky Mountains. Formerly it bred in 

 great numbers in the United States, in Michigan, Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota, Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, 

 but the continual persecution to which the redheadi 

 with our other ducks, is subjected in spring has driven 

 it from many of these ancient breeding grounds. There 

 are some localities, however, in the Middle West occu- 

 pied by gunning clubs where spring shooting is not al- 

 lowed, and here the redhead and some other varieties 

 of ducks stop and breed, with the result that in the 

 autumn the club members have shooting far better than 

 they ever did when spring shooting prevailed. Birds 

 that have been bred on the grounds are gentle and 



