62 NOTES ON THE 
which consequently are whiter; wings blackish; lesser and 
middle coverts sprinkled with grayish; speculum white, edged 
behind with greenish-black, which is also the color of the ter- 
tials; white of speculum crosses the middle of the secondaries;. 
iris yellow. 
Length, 16.50; wing, 8; tarsus, 1.85; commissure 2. 
Habitat, North America generally. 
These Ducks are frequently more numerous than any other 
species in the fall, not excepting the Buffle-heads. They re- 
tire southward about as much in advance of the Blue-opills as 
they arrive later in spring. 
AYTHYA COLLARIS (Donovan). (150.) 
RING-NECKED DUCK. 
In the spring of 1861, and again in 1867, this species seemed 
to overshadow every other in numbers,and there have been few 
years in which it has not had a fairly common representation. 
They arrive about the same time in spring as do the Greater 
Scaups, but seek the lakes and ponds rather than the streams. 
Their movements on the wing are quite characteristic, and 
enable those familiar with the flight of different species of 
ducks, to single them out very readily. In one respect they 
remind us of the Golden-eyes. On rising from the water, 
their flight, always vigorous, is attended with a whisting 
sound, so distinct as to assure their identity even while yet 
invisible to the eye, and when visible, the flocks are easily 
determined by their loose, scattered mode of arrangement. 
They are more suspicious, and vigilant than some other mem- 
bers of the genus, and give the gun a wide birth after discoy- 
ering that it is loaded. They are good divers, and feed upon 
minnows, crayfish, tadpoles, aquatic roots, insects, and grains 
or seeds, according to their prevalence at the season. The 
larger part of them move northward before the first of May, 
but some remain here to breed, their nests having been occa- 
sionally found as far towards the southern border of the State 
as Heron lake in Jackson county, in Hennepin and Becker coun- 
ties, and in the vicinity of Big Stone lake, thus indicating a wide 
distribution. As early as the summer of 1868, reports reached 
me of their being seen during the breeding season along the 
Minnesota river, and again in 1869, a farmer residing near 
Rice lake in Anoka county, who claimed to know most of the 
prominent species of game ducks, insisted that the Ring necks 
stayed around the lake all summer, as he had flushed one of 
them several times in a marsh bordering it. In driving back and 
