224 RIVER AND POND DUCKS 



the bill pointing downward at a noticeable angle. 

 The black and white bars in front of the wings of 

 the male are good field marks. The combination of 

 dark chest and wings, long dark tail and white 

 breast will identify the male Wood Duck. Both sexes 

 show a high proportion of white on the under sur- 

 face and for this reason, and on account of similar 

 size, resemble Baldpates in flight, though the down- 

 turned bill, not pointed forward like that of the 

 Baldpate, should distinguish the species even at a 

 distance. 



VOICE. A very chatty bird, especially when feeding in the woods, when it 

 squeals, clucks, and squeaks loquaciously. The male emits a long series of whis- 

 tles hoo-w-ett, hoo-w-ett, repeated, and a chick-a-waugh, and a cheep-cheep, and 

 a mellow peet-peet, and when startled, a hoo-eek, hoo-eek, and a series of little 

 chick, chick's, low, and hardly audible at a distance of 30 feet; the female, when 

 startled, a sharp cr-r-ek, cr-r-ek, cr-r-ek. The call of the mother to the young is a soft 

 and prolonged pe-ee, pe-ee, to which they respond with a mellow pee, pee, pee, often 

 and rapidly repeated. 



LIFE STORY 



Indisputably the drake Wood Duck is the most beautiful of all our 

 wildfowl. And it is entirely our own. Peculiar to North America, it 

 breeds across the continent and winters mainly in the Southern States. 

 Adjectives such as "beautiful" or "gorgeous" fail to do justice to its 

 resplendent, iridescent plumage, with its combination of delicately grad- 

 uated vermiculations, offset by bold 

 dashes of white against the rich dark 

 background. Not only the male, but 

 the female, too, shows more colour 

 than the females of other species. 

 And the setting chosen for all this 

 beauty serves but to enhance it; for 

 this Beau Brummel frequents se- 

 cluded inland pools and streams bordered by woods and forest swamps. 

 Here it perches on the limbs of the trees, preens its feathers on the 

 fallen mossy logs and flies through the branches and tree tops, threading 

 its way with the greatest of ease. 



The Wood Duck has always been persecuted by man; not alone for 

 its flesh, which is good, but for its feathers which is used in the making 

 of artificial trout flies, and for collections which, when carefully 

 mounted by the taxidermist, it adorns. The woods which shelter it have 

 been cut, and the ponds and swamps in which it feeds have been drained 

 and reclaimed. As a result this lovely species, formerly so abundant, 

 was brought to the point of extinction. Timely legislation, however, 

 saved it and the Wood Duck, through the protection afforded by law, is 

 once more becoming common throughout the land. In 1918, a closed 

 season was declared in Canada and the United States, and protection was 



