42 NOTES ON THE 
streams of running water, and are composed of weeds, sticks, 
grasses, and rushes as the location conveniently supplies them. 
The eggs, eight to ten in number, are rather of a cream- white, 
at least would be but for the dirt imparted by the soiled feet of 
the brooding female. 
As is the case with nearly every species of the family breed- 
in the State, the distribution is subject to extreme variations 
from year to year. In a local scarcity of Ring-necks and 
Scaups, for instance, this species will abound during one sea- 
son which may be followed in the next by its almost total ab- 
sence, while one of those mentioned, or almost any other, may 
be in force in any single section. This circumstance applies 
equally with the Mallard. : 
The relative abundance of species may be best studied in the 
return of expert duck-hunter’s bags. 
In the hunting season there are few portions of our State 
where some of this species are not found. It has not yet been 
my fortune to see the nest and eggs in situ, but I have the 
latter in my collection obtained within a few hours ride of my 
home by Mr. EH. L. Hood, an expert odlogist in my employ- 
ment. 
Incredible numbers of this species are slaughtered for the fall 
market and are regarded only second to the Mallard in value 
for the table. It is a gamy duck and flies promptly at the ap- 
proach of danger; is an exceptionally good diver and rapid 
swimmer. It wanders a long distance from the water for nuts, 
acorns, etc., in the cloudy, windy days of November. They re- 
tire from this latitude generally during the last week in 
October. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Head and neck brownish-white, each feather spotted with 
dusky; top of head tinged with reddish; lower part of neck, 
with forepart of breast, and back, blackish, with concentric 
narrow bars of white, giving a scaled appearance to the 
feathers; inter-scapular region, outermost scapulars, and 
sides of body, finely weaved transversely with black and 
white; middle wing coverts chestnut, the greater, velvet- 
black, succeeded by a pure white speculum, bordered exter- 
nally by hoary gray; innermost scapulars with a reddish 
tinge; crissum and upper tail coverts black; longest tertials 
hoary plumbeous gray; inside of wing and axillaries pure 
white; bill black; iris hazel. 
Length, 22; wing, 10.50; tarsus, 1.65; commissure, 2.04. 
Habitat, United States. Nearly cosmopolitan. 
