Sea and Bay Ducks 



Bonaparte, would never have named it clangula. "They have 

 also a peculiar mewling cry," Brooks adds, "made only by the 

 males in the mating season." 



Bufflehead 



(Cbaritonetta albeola) 



Called also: BUTTER-BALL; BUTTER-BOX; SPIRIT DUCK; 

 LITTLE DIPPER; BUFFALO-HEADED DUCK. 



Length — 13.50 to 15 inches. 



Male — A broad white band running from eye to eye around the 

 nape of neck ; rest of head with puffy feathers, and, like those 

 on throat, beautifully glossed with purple, blue, and green 

 iridescence. Other upper parts black; neck all around, 

 wings chiefly, and under parts wholly, white. Bill dull blue; 

 feet flesh color. 



Female — Blackish brown above, with white streak on each side 

 of head; whitish below. Smaller than male. 



Range — North America at large, nesting from Dakota, Iowa, and 

 Maine northward to the fur countries; winters from the 

 southern limit of its nesting range, or near it, to Mexico and 

 the West Indies. 



Season — Transient spring and autumn visitor, or winter resident 

 from November to April. 



Not even a grebe or loon is more expert at diving "like a 

 flash " than this handsome little duck. Samuels says that "when 

 several of these birds are together one always remains on the 

 surface while the others are below in search of food, and if 

 alarmed it utters a short quack, when the others rise to the surface, 

 and on ascertaining the cause of alarm all dive and swim off 

 rapidly to the distance of several hundred feet." 



A bufflehead overtakes and eats little fish under water or 

 equally nimble insects on the surface, probes the muddy bottom 

 of the lake for small shell fish, nibbles the sea-wrack and other 

 vegetable growth of the salt-water inlets, all the while toughen- 

 ing its flesh by constant exercise and making it rank by a fishy 

 diet, until none but the hungriest of sportsmen care to bag it. 

 Yet this duck is more than commonly suspicious and shy. It will 

 remain just below the surface, with only its nostrils exposed to the 



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