WATER BIRDS. 91 
50 or 60 miles per hour—most species hardly more than 40 miles. Its 
flesh is held in high esteem, and after feeding for a time on “wild celery” 
the bird is considered almost equal to the Canvasback under similar circum- 
stances. When in poor condition neither species is as good as the Mallard. 
This species is an early migrant ins pring, arriving in southern counties 
from March 15 to 25 and lingering through April. Most of the birds 
have gone north from the region of Detroit by the first of May, and they 
do not come south in any numbers until late October; the best shooting 
occurring during November and December. Probably a few spend the 
winter about the mouth of the Detroit River, or more rarely on Lake St. 
Clair, but formerly the Redhead nested occasionally within our limits. 
In 1879 or 1880 the late W. H. Collins found two nests at St. Clair Flats, 
one containing seven and the other eight eggs (Bull. Nuttall Club, V. 61, 
62). J. H. Langille also reported the Redhead as nesting commonly at 
St. Clair Flats at about the same time, and described the young as “olive 
green with the cheeks and under parts bright yellow (Bull. Buffalo Soe. 
Nat. Hist. V, 1879, 34, 35). It seems probable that an occasional pair 
even nowadays nests in the same region, as Mr. Swales in a recent letter 
states that he is ‘assured that a pair nested in the Dickinson Marshes 
(St. Clair Flats) in the summer of 1901.” In Wisconsin, according to 
Kumlien and Hollister, ‘even at present a few pairs are said to nest annually 
in the large marshes about Lake Koshkonong (Birds of Wisconsin, p. 21). 
In North Dakota where the species breeds abundantly, Mr. A. C. Bent 
states that the nest is well made of flags and reeds and lined with white 
down. It is usually surrounded by water and is placed among growing 
flags, its rim being seldom as much as a foot above the water. Fresh eggs 
were found abundantly between the first and middle of June and the sets 
varied from 6 to 22, the latter being an extraordinary number, but believed 
to be the product of a single bird. The next highest number was sixteen 
and the average number between ten and fourteen. Mr. Bent states that 
the Redhead seems to be particularly careless about laying its eggs in 
other ducks’ nests. He found one of its eggs in a Ruddy Duck’s nest, 
and in three cases found from three to four of its eggs in nests of a Canvas- 
back, but never found the eggs of any other species in the Redhead’s nests 
(Auk, XIX, 8-9). 
The eggs are olive buff or greenish buff, with a very smooth and ex- 
tremely hard shell, and average 2.42 by 1.73 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Head and neck all round bright reddish-brown, often glossed with purple; 
lower neck, upper back and upper breast velvet black; rest of back, scapulars, sides and 
flanks wavy cross-lined with black and white (canvas-pattern), the lines being of about 
equal width. Most of breast and belly white, the latter grayer posteriorly; rump and 
upper and under tail-coverts deep black; speculum gray or bluish gray, some of the inner 
secondaries{tipped with white. 233 
Adult,female: Without any red on head or neck, or any wavy pencilling anywhere. 
Mainly[erayish brown, darker above, lighter below, the chin and throat alone white. 
Wing nearly the same as in male. 
Ten ath (Genes nearly alike), 17 to 21 inches; wing 8.50 to 9.25; culmen 2.05 to 2.25. 
