186 



DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS 



of solid rusty brown, but the head-color of the Redhead is 

 the more intense and conspicuous. 



The head of the Redhead has a high and well-rounded 

 forehead and crown, while that of the canvas-back is wedge- 

 shaped, the forehead forming a straight line with the top of the 

 bill. The Redhead has a short bill with a blue band across 



it; the other species has 

 a long bill with no band. 

 The Redhead (like 

 the canvas-back) feeds 

 chiefly upon aquatic 

 plants, like wild rice 

 and potomogeton, but 

 its favorite food is the 

 vallisneria, a kind of 

 trailing water-weed 

 which grows in many 

 of the inlets along the 

 Atlantic coast. 



Through countless generations of diving after food plants, 

 the Redhead has become a deep diver. It is accustomed to 

 seeking its food in mid-stream of deep rivers, and in the open 

 water of lakes and sounds, where many other ducks would be 

 quite unable to reach the bottom. Reliable lake fishermen 

 at Lakeside, Orleans County, New York, have informed me 

 that they have taken drowned Redhead Ducks from nets 

 that had been set on the bottom of Lake Ontario, at a depth 

 of ninety feet, where the Ducks could not possibly have be- 

 come entangled save in going to the bottom for food. It 



THE REDHEAD DUCK. 



