534 BIKDi — AKATID^. 



Buffle-head, or, as more frequently called, the Dipper Duck or Butter-ball, 

 is more abundant on the streams than in ponds.. No species is better 

 known to the amateur sportsman than this, which frequently prefers to 

 avoid danger by diving rather than by flight. They are usually seen 

 in small flocks of from six to ten, among which the males frequently 

 outnumber the females. Both sexes, however, are often seen singly or 

 in company with other species. 



Dr. Coues (Birds N. W., 575) describes the nest of this duck as placed 

 in the hollow of a dead tree, and composed of feathers. The eggs are 

 described as varying 'from buff to a creamy- white or grayish-olive color, 

 and measuring from 1.67 to 2 in length by from 1.25 to 1.50 in breadth. 



eteNUB HARELDA. Leach. 



Bill without lateral and superior extension of feathers and consequently without su- 

 perior and lateral basal processes; the lateral outline of feathers oblique. BiU not 

 swollen at base, shorter than head or tarsus, high, tapering to the tip. Nostrils 

 linear, in the posterior half of bill. Tail feathers long and pointed, in the male equal 

 to the wing. 



Haeelda &LACIALIS (L.) Leach. 



lL«oiLg*tailed. I>iiclr. 



Sarelda glacialis, Whbaton, Ohio Agric. Bep. for 1860, 370, 378 ; Reprint, 1861, 12, 20 ; 

 Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 574 ; Reprint, 1875, 14. — Merriam, 

 Trans. Conn. Acad., iv, 1877, 127. 



Anas gladdlis, Linn^US, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 203 



Sarelda gladalU, "Lbach." — Steiph., Gen. Zool., xii,pt. ii, 1854, 175. 



Tail of fourteen narrow, pointed feathers, in the male in summer the central ones very 

 slender and much elongated, nearly or quite equalling the wing ; nail of bill occupying 

 the whole tip ; seasonal changes remarkable. Male in summer with the back and the long 

 narrowly lanceolate scapulars varied with reddish-brown, wanting in winter, when this 

 color is exchanged for pearly-gray or white ; general color blackish or very dark brown, 

 below from the breast abruptly white ; no white on the wing ; sides of head plumbeous- 

 gray ; in winter the head, neck and body anteriorly, white, but the gray cheek-patch 

 persistent, and a large dark patch below this ; bill at all seasons black, broadly orange- 

 barred. Female without lengthened scapulars or tail feathers, the bill dusky greenish, 

 and otherwise different ; but recognized by presence of head- and neck- patches, and 

 absence of white on the wing. Length, 15-20 or more, according to tail ; wing, 8-9. 



Habitat, Northern Hemisphere. Chiefly maritime. Also on the Great Lakes. 



Not common winter visitor on Lake Erie, and rare in the interior of 

 the State. Mr. Winslow informed me in 1861, that the Long-tailed 

 Duck was of not unfrequent occurrence on the lake, and I have since 

 seen several specimens from Sandusky Bay. 



My friend, Dr. T. C. Hoover captured a fine male in a small creek near 

 Bellaire, Ohio, February 9, 1877, and Chas. J. Orton secured a female in 



