1920 Brooks, Notes on American Ducks. ODD 



Unlike the larger species the females are very variable, in many 

 fully adult and breeding birds there is no white at the base of 

 the bill, the whole head being light brown; in others the head is 

 very dark brown with a conspicuous white patch on the face, as 

 in the Greater Scaup. These dark birds very often have the 

 back freckled with white, a character I have not noticed in the 

 light brown headed birds, in which the whole body plumage, 

 except the breast and belly, is uniform light brown. 



Marila valisineria. Canvas-back. 



Breeding range exactly as in the Lesser Scaup. Southern breed- 

 ing records are Lumby — one pair in 1902, and Grand Forks — 

 three pairs in 1919. 



Marila collaris. Ring-necked Duck. 



I can completely endorse all that Mr. Hollister says about 

 this duck. One other point of similarity between it and the 

 Redhead is the color of the downy young, exactly the same in 

 both birds and quite different from the dusky ducklings of the 

 Scaups. When in England I frequently watched the Tufted 

 Ducks very closely, to see points of affinity to our Ringneck. 

 The full plumaged males certainly look very much alike, espec- 

 ially when one sees them diving in shallow water, the whole body 

 being almost enveloped in the light colored flank feathers. They, 

 like the male Ringnecks, are very conspicuous as they dart about 

 along the bottom rising like corks after a short immersion. 



But the females are not so much alike, and the young are utterly 

 different, the downy young of the Tufted Duck being the most 

 dusky colored ducklings I know of. And the females and young 

 are a far better indication of affinities than the males. The fe- 

 male of the old world Pochard (Marila ferina) is extraordinarily 

 like a female Canvas-back, a female Redhead in the London 

 Zoo ponds alongside of the Pochards looked utterly unlike, both 

 in form and color, but strangely like a couple of female Rosy- 

 billed ducks (Metopiana peposaca) which often came alongside 

 of her. 



And yet a certain well-known ornithologist in England pro- 

 poses to make our Redhead a subspecies of the Old World Pochard! 



