DUCKS 61 



General habits. — Lesser scaups occur in both small and 

 large flocks, feeding usually in open water of about 4 feet or 

 less in depth, although frequently found in the bays in deeper 

 water. They fly swiftly in rather compact ranks and, being 

 unsuspicious, they may usually be shot from a boat with little 

 difficulty or decoyed within reach of a blind. Their notes, 

 uttered usually when flying in companies, are harsh and gut- 

 tural, though not loud. 



Food habits. — The food of this duck in Alabama, as shown 

 by the examination by the Biological Survey of 18 stomachs, 

 consists of the foliage and seeds of pondweed, water milfoil 

 (Myriophyllum) , smartweed (Polygonum), waterlily (Cas- 

 talia), hornwort (Ceratophyllum) , and sedges; snails and 

 other mollusks; crabs; caddis cases; dragonfly nymphs; and 

 chironomid larvae. 



Snails formed a large percentage of the food of nearly all 

 the birds examined, and in several instances composed the 

 entire stomach content. One individual had consumed over 

 500 snails of 6 or more species. A bird taken on Petit Bois 

 Island had eaten 800 seeds of the waterlily, and another from 

 the same place had taken 1,800 seeds of pondweed (Ruppia 

 maritima). 



RING-NECKED DUCK; "BLACK DUCK:" Perisso^aetta 

 collaris* (Donovan). 



State records. — McCormack records the ring-necked duck 

 as a very common migrant and possible winter resident at 

 Leighton, arriving in November and remaining till the middle 

 of December. He has not seen it in January or February, but 

 it is common during the early part of March. Golsan and Holt 

 report it as wintering in small numbers in Autauga County,! 

 and Amel Callaway states that it occurs occasionally at Orange 

 Beach. On Mississippi Sound it is one of the commonest win- 

 tering species, apparently about as numerous as the lesser 

 scaup. A number of specimens were taken there, November 

 13 to 17, 1915. It is also fairly common in Mobile Bay, where 



*MariU collaris of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see The Auk, vol. 

 39, p. 245, 1822. 



tGolsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 216, 1914. 



