420 FEATHERED GAME 
going they fly fast, their wings making consid- 
erable noise from their rapid motion. With all 
these drawbacks the Ruddy is wonderfully 
quick either in the air or on the water. He is 
quite capable of taking care of himself once he 
gets it into his head that harm is intended. He 
can get under water with a celerity that falls 
little short of the marvelous. One of his tricks 
has always been a mystery to me: he will sink 
himself completely beneath the surface without 
diving—-simply settles down like a sinking 
craft and beats a retreat under water where 
he is as much at home as any duck of them all. 
I have seen black ducks when they thought 
themselves undiscovered and their wit said it 
was dangerous to fly, sink themselves so that 
only the head showed above water, and have 
seen shelldrakes settle down in the same style 
until only their heads were visible and so go 
darting and zig-zagging away when they had 
flown in and settled among a bunch of decoys 
before discovering the cheat, but I have never 
seen any of these go completely below the sur- 
face without an attempt at diving as does the 
Ruddy. 
On the water he rides so much deeper than 
