SEA AND BAY DUCKS 



(Subfamily Fuligulince) 



Redhead 



(Aytloyra americana) 



Called also: AMERICAN POCHARD 



Length 19 to 20 inches. 



Male Well rounded head and throat, bright reddish chestnut, 

 with coppery reflection; lower neck, lower back, and fore 

 parts of body above and below, black; rest of the back, 

 sides, and shoulders waved with black and white lines of 

 equal width, that give the parts a silvery gray aspect. Wings 

 brownish gray, minutely dotted with white; wing patch 

 ashy, bordered with black; wing linings chiefly white like the 

 under parts. Bill, which is less than two inches long, dull 

 blue, with a black band at end. Legs and feet grayish brown. 



Female Upper parts dull grayish brown; darker on lower back, 

 the feathers edged with buff or ashy, giving them a mottled 

 appearance; forehead wholly brown; line behind eye and 

 cheeks reddish; upper throat white; neck buff; breast and 

 sides grayish brown washed with buff, and shading into 

 white underneath; an indistinct bluish gray band across end 

 of bill. 



Range North America at large; nesting from California and 

 Minnesota northward, and wintering south of Virginia to 

 West Indies. 



Season Spring and autumn migrant, or winter visitor. 



Caterers not up in ornithology very often have this common 

 wild duck of the market stalls palmed off on them, at a fancy 

 price, for canvasbacks; and the tyro on the duck shores of the 

 Chesapeake and our inland lakes just as frequently confuses these 

 two species. Here are a few aids to identification offered in the 

 interest of science, and not because any sympathy need be felt for 

 one who is compelled to eat a redhead, the peer of any table duck. 



The bill of the canvasback is a full half inch longer than that 

 114 



