64 BtRDS OF ALABAMA 



Food habits. — Of the food of this species, Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway say: 



On the seacoast and on the estuaries, it obtains, by diving, small fry, 

 shrimps, bivalve-shells, and moUusks; in fresh water, small crawfish, 

 leeches, snails, grasses, and other water-plants.-j- 



McAtee states that it feeds on wild rice, wild celery, and 

 pondweeds.$ 



OLDSQUAW: Clangula hyemalis (Linnaeus).* 



State records. — The oldsquaw, or long-tailed duck, ap- 

 parently is rather uncommon in the waters along the coast. 

 No specimens are known from Alabama but its occurrence 

 is reported at Bayou Labatre by two experienced hunters, 

 both of whom identified the bird (independently) from the 

 drawing of the head in Chapman's "Handbook."** Mr. A. D. 

 GoUott stated that he killed one of the birds in Mississippi 

 Sound, near Bayou Labatre, on March 3, 1912, and saw a large 

 flock of the same species there in the spring of 1911. Mr. 

 T. P. White reported seeing a flock of about 20 in the same 

 locality in January, 1912. 



General habits. — This duck is a hardy bird, breeding in the 

 far North and coming South only during severe weather. It 

 frequents the ocean as well as the bays and often feeds just 

 beyond the inner line of breakers. Not only is it an expert 

 diver but it is one of the swiftest-flying members of its family. 

 It has an odd, nasal, though mellow, call which has given it 

 the name of "south-southerly." 



Food habits. — Nuttall states that the species subsists chief- 

 ly upon small shellfish and marine plants, particularly the 

 Zostero,, or grass-wrack. 



tBaird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water birds of North Amer., vol. 2, p. Bl, 1884. 

 JMcAtee, W. L., Bull. 466, U. S. Dcpt. Aer.. pp. 4, 10, 17, 1917. 



'Harelda hyemalis of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of taame, see The Auk, vol. 

 37, p. 442, 1920. 



"Chapman, F. M., Handbook of birds of Eastern North America, PI. XII, 1912. 



