THE BED-HEAD 329 



more strictly to be termed "sea ducks," and 

 somewhat contemptuously called ' t trash ducks ' ' 

 or even "flying fishes," by the more aristo- 

 cratic among wildfowlers. 



This is one of the commonest of the ducks 

 in the wild rice sloughs of the West, and it is 

 often shot in the immense corn- and grain- 

 fields of those sections, which they visit to feed 

 upon the ripened seeds. They will fly long dis- 

 tances to get a corn dinner. Though, when it 

 may choose, the Bed-head is a vegetable feeder, 

 if a breakfast of this sort is not to be had the 

 bird will content itself with a meal of young 

 frogs or tadpoles if it can find them. He is 

 mainly a diving fowl and a bottom feeder, espe- 

 cially so in the waters of the northeast, where 

 as a rule we know him as a salt water dweller, 

 or at least a bird of the river mouths. 



They arrive in these latitudes during late 

 September or October, staying until the increas- 

 ing cold has effectually closed all fresh water 

 for the winter, when they come into the coast 

 waters, working their way southward to remain 

 until the spring sunshine opens again their 

 feeding grounds in the north. This species is 

 more numerous on the eastern half of our con- 



