o54 Brooks, Notes on American Ducks. [juiy 



Marila americana. Redhead. 



There is a very frequent tendency to albinism in the female 

 Red-head, not in the male. Adult females are almost always 

 plentifully sprinkled with white feathers on the back of the head 

 and neck; this is accompanied by a varying amount of white in 

 the down. I have carefully plucked the outer feathers from a 

 number of females, the down on the lower surface may or may 

 not be white. The amount of white in the down seems to 

 parallel the amount of white in the feathers of the head, 

 very rarely is the down continuously white but is usually marbled 

 with patches of dusky colored down. The fattest birds very 

 often have the largest areas of white in the down on the lower 

 surface, it may be that the down may not be properly pigmented 

 because of the heavy layer of fat. 



On the lake in front of my house at the present moment among 

 the hundreds of Redheads is a female with an almost entirely 

 white head, the body being quite normal. 



The variation in the numerical strength of the sexes accord- 

 ing to season is probably as pronounced in this species as in any 

 duck. At present (November), the proportion of females to 

 males is about 2 to 3, in midwinter, (January), one hardly sees a 

 female in the large flocks of males, and not until the end of Feb- 

 ruary are the proportions anything like equal. A similar se- 

 quence occurs in nearly every species of duck at this latitude, 

 with the possible exception of the Mallard, in which the sexes 

 are usually proportionate throughout the year. 



Marila marila. Scaup. 



The A. O. U. 'Check-List' gives this species as breeding in south- 

 ern British Columbia; I can find no reliable record of this, and 

 consider it in the highest degree improbable, as I have never 

 seen the species in summer even as far north as I have been in 

 central British Columbia, (lat. 54 ), except for a few crippled 

 birds. 



Marlia afflnis. Lesser Scaup. 



This is a common breeder in central British Columbia (the 

 region between Quesnelle Lake and Lac la Hache), but a scarce 

 one in the southern portion of the province. 



