188 RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



European Widgeon, which is 24 or 25 days; the male does not assist in 

 the process but remains at hand until the moulting season commences. 



The female guards her young with jealous care, as the following 

 account by Nelson (1887) illustrates: "I once came suddenly upon a fe- 

 male widgeon, with her brood of ten or a dozen little ducklings, in a 

 small pond. As I approached the parent uttered several low, guttural 

 notes and suddenly fluttered across the water and fell heavily at my feet, 

 so close that I could almost touch her with my gun. Meanwhile, the 

 young swam to the opposite side of the pond and began to scramble out 

 into the grass. Willing to observe the old bird's manoeuvers, I continued 

 to poke at her with the gun as she fluttered about my ieet, but she al- 

 ways managed to elude my strokes until, just as the last of her brood 

 climbed out of the water, she slyly edged away, and suddenly flew off to 

 another pond some distance away. I then ran as quickly as possible to 

 the point where the ducks left the water, yet, though but few moments 

 had elapsed, the young had concealed themselves so thoroughly that, in 

 spite of the fact that the grass was only 3 or 4 inches high and rather 

 sparse, I spent half an hour in fruitless search." 



"The Baldpate feeds on or near the surface by dabbling in the mud 

 or tipping up in shallow water. Where not disturbed it is liable to feed 

 at any time during the day, though it is always more active in the early 

 morning or toward night. But, as it seldom enjoys much security, it 

 more often spends the day skulking in the reeds, dozing on some sunny 

 bank, or playing about on open water at a safe distance from land: t-hen 

 as dusk comes on it repairs in small flocks to its feeding grounds, where 

 it can feed in safety during the greater part of the night" (Bent, 1923). 



An examination of the stomach contents of 229 Baldpates, taken 

 during the eight months from September to April and from 25 States, 4 

 Canadian Provinces, Alaska and Mexico, showed the average diet to be 

 over nine-tenths vegetable, and gave the following approximate per- 

 centages: pondweeds, 43; grasses, 14; algae, 8; sedges, 7; wild celery and 

 waterweed, 6; water milfoils, 3; duckweeds, 2; miscellaneous plant food, 

 10; total vegetable food, 93 per cent. Molluscs, 6; insects and miscel- 

 laneous, 1 ; total animal food, 7 per cent. The feeding habits of this bird 

 are very similar to those of the Gadwall. 



In the autumn the Baldpate starts south early in September and 

 loiters considerably on the way, leisurely spreading out from its inland 

 breeding range to its winter quarters on the coasts. In the spring it is 

 not one of the earliest migrants and does not usually arrive at the Cana- 

 dian border until late in May. It winters on both the south Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts and on the coasts of the Gulf States in association with 

 Mallards, Pintails, Gadwalis, and Lesser Scaup Ducks. 



