16 TowNSEND, Courtship of Ducks. [jm. 



abbreviated bow. At the same time he whistles in a low sweet 

 way as if he were drawing in rather than blowing out his breath. 

 The feathers of his crest and head are at the same time erected. 



The only description heretofore given of this courtship that I 

 can find, with the exception of a partial one by Hatch/ is the fol- 

 lowing from Audubon : - " Observe that fine drake. How grace- 

 fully he raises his head and curves his neck. As he bows before 

 the object of his love, he raises for a moment his silken crest. 

 His throat is swelled and from it there issues a guttural sound, 

 which to his beloved is as sweet as the song of the Wood Thrush to 

 its gentle mate. The female as if not unwilling to manifest the 

 desire to please which she really feels, swims close by his side, now 

 and then caresses him by touching his feathers with her bill, and 

 shows displeasure towards any other of her sex that rnay come near. 

 Soon the happy pair separate from the rest, repeat every now and 

 then their caresses, and at length having sealed the conjugal com- 

 pact, fly off to the woods to search for a large Woodpecker's hole." 



The Bufflehead {Charitonetta albeola) in nuptial plumage is a 

 handsome sight and well deserves his name for his head is as large 

 in proportion to his body as is the Buffalo's, for huffle-head means, 

 I suppose, buffalo-head. The white triangle behind the eyes 

 contrasts strikingly with the glossy greenish-black forehead, and 

 the white of the flanks rolls up over the white of the wings. The 

 female is much more modestly dressed and only a small white 

 patch adorns her smaller head. 



As far as I know the courtship of this species has never been 

 described. Millais ^ says " From what I could gather from natura- 

 lists in British Columbia the Courtship is very like, if not exactly 

 similar to that of the Golden-eye, but no one seems to have ob- 

 served it at close range." As will be seen my own observations do 

 not bear this out. 



A group of thirty-five or forty of these birds with sexes about 

 equally divided may have been actively feeding, swimming to- 

 gether in a compact flock all pointing the same way. They dive 

 within a few seconds of each other and stay under water 14 to 20 



» p. L. Hatch, "Notes on the Birds of Minnesota," 1892, p. 54. 



2 Birds of America, 1842, VI, p. 275. 



3 British Diving Ducks. Vol. I, p. 109. 



