BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 55 



stripe starting below and behind the eye and running into the 

 crest parallel with the one first mentioned, the chin and upper 

 part of the throat sending a well defined branch up towards 

 the eye, and another towards the nape, snow white; lower neck 

 and jugulum, and sides of the base of the tail, rich purple; the 

 3 ugulum with triangular spots of white and a chestnut shade; 

 remaining under parts white, as in a crescent in front of the 

 wing bordered behind by black; sides yellowish gray, finely 

 lined with black, the long feathers of the flanks broadly black 

 at the end, with a subterminal bar, and sometimes a tip of 

 white; back and neck above nearly uniform bronze, green 

 and purple; scapulars and innermost tertials velvet-black 

 glossed on the inner webs with violet; the latter with a 

 white bar at the end; grea.ter coverts violet succeeded by a 

 greenish speculum, tipped with white; primaries silvery white 

 externally towards the end; the tips internally violet and 

 purple; iris red. 



Length, 19; wing, 9.50; tarsus, 1.40; commissure, 1.55. 



Habitat, North America. 



My numerous correspondents have uniformly mentioned this 

 species as common, and breeding in their localities, if in the 

 timbered lands. Dr. Hvoslef only mentions them thus com- 

 mon, but says nothing of their nesting at Lanesboro or vicinity. 



Mr. Lewis found their nests at several points in the north- 

 ern sections he visited, and always under the Audubon con- 

 ditions. 



Mr. Washburn, always accurate and circumstantial, says, 

 abundant, and breeding at Devil's lake." 



AYTHYA AMERICANA (Eyton). (146.) 



RED HEAD. 



Amongst the numerous sportsmen who have long resided in 

 Minnesota, the great paradise of duck-shooters, not one will 

 be found who does not know the Red head at sight, and few of 

 them will fail to identify him under all the various circumstan- 

 ces in which he is ever met with. Introduce the subject of 

 duck-hunting, and " ten to one " he will refer to this species 

 next to the first one mentioned, and will ask if any other game 

 duck is so capricious in the numbers of its annual representa- 

 tion, while at the same time he narrates their incredible abund- 

 ance during the spring or fall of some year and their scarcity 

 in the year following perhaps. This has truly been a remark- 

 able characteristic in the case of this well known species. To 

 some extent this is characteristic of all species of ducks, but 

 in few if any, as emphasized as in the history of the Red- 

 heads. They arrive about as early as any others, and dis- 

 appear very little earlier than the latest. 



5z 



