56 . HISTORY OF THE 



HABITAT. Eastern North America; breeding from the more 

 northern United States to Hudson's Bay and Labrador. (West- 

 ern and southern limits imperfectly determined.) 



SP. CHAR. ''Adult: Prevailing color brownish black or dusky, the feathers 

 edged more or less distinctly with pale grayish fulvous. Head and neck about 

 equally streaked with grayish white (more ochraceous near the bill) and dusky; 

 pileum nearly uniform dusky, and a dusky stripe back from the eye. Speculum 

 violet, changing to green in some lights, narrowly tipped with white, and with 

 a broad subterminal bar of velvety black; last row of coverts dusky brownish, 

 broadly tipped with black. Sexes alike. Bill yellowish green, the unguis dusky: 

 iris dark brown; feet orange red, the webs dusky. Downy young: Above oli- 

 vaceous brown, faintly relieved by six inconspicuous markings of light brownish 

 buff, situated as follows: One on the posterior border of each arm wing; one 

 (small and sometimes obsolete) on each side of the back, behind the wings, and 

 one, more distinct, on each side of the rump, near the base of the tail. Pileum 

 and nape (longitudinally) brown, like the back; rest of the head and neck with 

 lower parts light dingy brownish buff, paler on the abdomen; side of the head 

 marked with a narrow dusky stripe, running ficm the upper basal angle of the 

 maxilla to the eye, thence back toward the occiput, but scarcely confluent with 

 the- brown on the latter; an indistinct spot on the auricular region, with a still 

 less distinct dusky mark extending back from this to the nape." 



Stretch of 

 Length. vuing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 24.00 37.50 11.25 4.25 1.75 2/30 



Female... 22.00 36.00 10.50 4.10 1.75 2.05 



The birds are very common on the Atlantic coast, decreasing 

 in numbers westward. They appear to be as much at home on 

 the salt water bays, marshes and inlets as upon the fresh waters. 



Their food consists of shell fish. Crustacea, frogs, and all forms 

 of insect life, also aquatic plants and grains, but are not as much 

 of a vegetable eater as the Mallard. Their flight is very rapid 

 and usually direct. 



They breed throughout their range, but chiefly northward. 

 I found them breeding in Nova Scotia, on the islands in the Bay 

 of Fundy, and upon the Magdalen Islands; at the latter, espe- 

 cially on Grosse Island, they were very abundant. Their nests 

 are placed on the ground in grass or rushes, usually near the 

 water. It is a large, compactly-arranged structure of weeds and 

 grasses, slightly hollowed, and lined with feathers and down 

 plucked from the breast of the bird. Eggs six to twelve, usually 

 seven or eight, 2.33x1.75; ground color creamy white, to pule 

 greenish buff; in form, nearly elliptical. 



