48 Birds of Colorado 
Medano Ranch on July 2nd, so that it probably breeds in the San Luis 
Valley. On migration it has been noticed by Carter in Middle Park 
and by Smith at Coventry (Warren), while there are examples in the 
Colorado College Museum from El] Paso co. and from Barr Lake, near 
Denver, both obtained in March. 
Habits.—This is a typical fresh-water Duck, haunting 
wet prairies, mud, flats and small pools in preference to 
large sheets of open water, and obtaining a good deal 
of its food by dibbling on the bottom with its head down 
and its tail and legs sticking up in the air; it seldom, if 
ever, dives. 
The eggs, of a buffy or greenish colour, are 7 to 10 in 
number as a rule, and are laid in a nest made of grasses 
and lined with down, placed on the ground, usually 
under the shelter of a bush. They nest early—early 
May in south Dakota. I have no dates for Colorado. 
Genus AIX. 
Head crested ; bill shorter than the head, hardly equal to the tarsus, 
narrow and more or less parallel-sided, with a large terminal and 
downwardly curved nail, lamelie few, small and not conspicuous, 
tail of sixteen feathers broad and rounded at the tips. 
One North American species. 
Wood-Duck. Aix sponsa. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 144—Colorado Records—Aiken 72, p. 210; 
Morrison 89, p. 165; H. G. Smith 95, p. 48 ; Cooke 97, pp. 55, 156, 194; 
06, p. 40; Henderson 03, p. 234; 07, p. 198; 09, p. 226. 
Description.—Male—Head and crest brilliant purple and green with 
white stripes ; throat white; chest rich chestnut with rows of white 
triangles ; sides grey with black and white bars and crescents ; shoulders 
crossed by black and white bars; rest of the upper-parts black, with 
rich irridescent colours ; iris red, bill pinkish-white, darker at the base, 
culmen, tip and lower mandible black, feet orange. Length 19:5 
wing 9-25; tail 4°75 ; culmen 1°35 ; tarsus 1:45. 
The female has the head dull grey glossed with green; the crest, 
crown, sides of the head and the throat white; the chest brown and 
the belly white ; the back richly glossed with greyish-brown, ; wing 8°60 ; 
iris brown, bill plumbeous, black on the culmen, legs yellowish. 
