BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 167 



Ontario and Maine, and rarely and locally in southern Lower California, 

 Kansas, Massachusetts, valley of Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Porto Rico 

 and Carriacou; winters from southern British Columbia, Arizona, New 

 Mexico, southern Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania and south to the 

 Lesser Antilles and Costa Rica; rare in migration to Newfoundland 

 and Bermuda. 



History. 



As long ago as the time of Nuttall the Ruddy Duck was 

 much sought after for the markets of Boston, but no great 

 decrease in its annual numbers was noted until within the 

 past thirty years, when it began to be demanded by the mar- 

 kets of other parts of the country. In Wilson's time and 

 until recent years it was almost never shot for market in the 

 middle or southern States, and Wilson considered it rare 

 because he never found a specimen in the markets. It came 

 in numbers and fed unmolested among the decoy Ducks at 

 the shooting stands; but during the latter part of the nine- 

 teenth century, when the bird came in fashion for the table, 

 it became the custom for southern gunners to form a line of 

 boats across a pond, river or inlet in which the Ruddy Ducks 

 had gathered, and, advancing, drive out or kill most of them. 

 As late as 1885 these Ducks were so numerous that Cape 

 Cod gunners got from twenty to thirty a day, and twenty -five 

 to thirty was the average bag to a boat near Chester, Pa. 

 (Trumbull). Great quantities of these birds have been killed 

 for food during the last twenty-five years along the Atlantic 

 coast. Only nine Massachusetts observers (1908) report an 

 increase in the numbers of this species, and fifty-five a 

 decrease. Dr. John C. Phillips of Wenham says that the 

 Ruddy Duck has decreased sixty per cent, in fifteen years on 

 account of heavy market shooting in the south. The species 

 has been decreasing steadily, and is in danger of extinction 

 unless better protected. 



The Ruddy Duck is an active, comical little fellow, with a 

 broad bill and huge paddles. It is often addicted to the habit 

 of carrying its tail cocked up, and when it swims low in the 

 water, with the head well drawn back, tail spread and point- 

 ing in the general direction of its head, its appearance is any- 

 thing but dignified. It is an interesting sight to see a large 



