The Oologist. 



VOL. XV. NO. 4. 



ALBION, N.y., APRIL, 1898. 



Whole No. 143 



Redhead and Ruddy. 



There are more facts in earth than 

 the books have told; and it is the delight 

 of the Ornithologist to search out 

 these. 



Not every bird-lover may wade waist 

 deep in marsh ooze asearch for delight- 

 ful surprises, among the ranks of rush, 

 and the mazes of last year's tangled 

 grass. And so the many miss the pleas- 

 ures of a close acquaintance with these 

 two— the Redhead and the Ruddy — 

 among the most attractive of our fresh 

 water ducks. Big, marshy, land-girt 

 lakes are the haunts they love. There 

 must be acres of dense rushes for cov- 

 ert and nest hiding; and a plentiful 

 choice of tiny open areas of water 

 where parent and brood may wash and 

 feed. 



But little Erismatura has his own 

 idiosyncrasy. Unlike the Redhead, he 

 loves nothing better, either for tran- 

 sient sojourn or for a summer home, 

 than an acre bit of slough, rush-bor- 

 dered and grass-girt, with all the cen- 

 ter clear; to make smooth sailing on the 

 summer winds. For, at least so Thom- 

 as Miller says, — and he surely knows, — 

 "During a gale of wind the Ruddy 

 erects his tail at right angles with his 

 body to catch the wind and push him 

 along." 



Thoroughly local are both these birds 

 except in migration, or by incident, 

 they are rarely abroad. One may live 

 within a mile of their haunts and yet 

 be none the wiser. For all that, the 

 Ruddy is found, quite plentifully for 

 fiim, wherever the above conditions are 

 satisfying, and, as for the Redhead, he 

 swarms in such a locus. 



Witness words of Mr. Miller, in a re- 

 port concerning the birds of the Heron 



Lake region: ''Redhead: Once our 

 most plentiful duck, here, has been 

 killed in thousands on this lake, for the 

 last fifteen years. Fancy twenty guns 

 hunting on one lake every day, for two 

 and a half months at a stretch, each gun 

 killing from thirty to ninety Redheads 

 a day. Is it any wonder that they are 

 not as plenty as they used to be?" In 

 apathetic rafts of ten to twenty, at 

 most, the Ruddy is found, in migration, 

 on favorable lakes, flying only when 

 they must, and then only for a stone's 

 throw, in flat, muddled masses. Mean- 

 while the Redhead swarms everywhere 

 among the other ducks; for, unlike the 

 Rudd3", he is no eremite. 



Now, visit the Redhead and Ruddy 

 haunts, in early May. Of the Ruddy, 

 we find simply one or two, in mute sol- 

 itude, here and there, upon the open 

 water. But as for the Redhead, while 

 she is seldom to be seen, the careless 

 mate rises from every open space, and 

 from the secluded margins of the bays, 

 in groups of five or even more, and cir- 

 cles about the naturalist, in all the hal- 

 ycon fearlessness of the close season ; 

 sometimes venturing so near that we 

 may rote the exquisite vermiculation 

 of his back; catch a glint of the brown- 

 ness of liis eyes, and listen to the hoarse- 

 ness of his quack, which sounds like 

 the voice of a suppositious Mallard, 

 suffering from bronchitis. 



Of course it is the nest that we look 

 for next. But we do not find it, search 

 as we may. We just stumble upon it. 

 We have floundered among the mazes 

 of the rushes for an hour, with the wat- 

 er often waist deep. The old wading 

 suit grows heavier and we grow more 

 and more tired. Suddenly from a dense 

 clump, the eye catches the glint of 



