The Buffle-head 



No. 363 



Buffle-head 



A. O. U. No. 153. Charitonetta albeola (Linnaeus). 



Synonyms. — Butter-ball. Spirit Duck. 



Description. — Adult male: Feathers of head puffy, somewhat lengthened 

 along crest and nape; head and upper neck black, sooty below, with brilliant violet, 

 purple, steel-blue, and bronze-green metallic reflections; a broad white space from eye 

 to eye around occiput; back, inner scapulars and tertiaries with touches on coverts 

 and some narrow bordering on the outer scapulars and upturned side-feathers glossy 

 black; upper tail-coverts and tail ashy gray; remaining plumage, including a broad 

 collar around neck, white; belly silky or washed with pale gray. Bill dull bluish with 

 dusky nail and base; feet flesh color, with black claws; iris brown. Adult female: 

 Head and neck mouse-brown, darker on crown, lighter on throat; a dull white patch 

 below and behind eye; speculum narrowly white; reminiscences of white coverts of 

 male in shape of two or three central spots on greater coverts; remaining plumage 

 above, grayish dusky, below silky white, shading on sides and hind-neck. Length 

 355.6-387.4 (14.00-15.25); av. of six males: wing 169.4 (6-67); tail 74.4 (2.93); bill 27.9 

 (no); tarsus 33.3 (1.31). Females smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Teal size; plumage extensively white; head black, with 

 large sharply-defined patch of white from eye to eye behind. Similar spot much 

 reduced, distinctive for female. Expert diver. 



Nesting. — Nest: In hollow of tree or stump or in tunnel of earth-bank; lined 

 with grasses and down. Eggs: 6 to 12; creamy white or ivory-yellow. Av. size 

 50.8 x 36.8 (2.00 x 1.45). Season: c. May 20; one brood. 



General Range. — North America. Breeds from the Upper Yukon, northern 

 interior Mackenzie, and central Keewatin, south to northern Washington, northern 

 Montana, and central Ontario. Winters from the Aleutian Islands, Idaho, Colorado, 

 Missouri, southern Michigan, Lake Erie, and New Brunswick, south to northern 

 Lower California, Jalisco, and Florida. Casual in Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, 

 and Europe. 



Distribution in California. — Winter resident, chiefly coastwise, and diminish- 

 ing in numbers southerly. In the interior chiefly confined to the lower-lying lakes and 

 reservoirs. Also sparingly resident in summer at least on Eagle Lake. 



Authorities. — Vigors (Clatigula albeola), Zool. Voy. "Blossom," 1839, p. 32 (San 

 Francisco); Brooks, Auk, vol. xx., 1903, p. 279 (nesting habits; British Columbia); 

 Dixon, Condor, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 165 (Eagle Lake, Lassen Co., breeding). 



CONSISTENCY is a jewel which no sportsman possesses. We go 

 forth to slay, but murder is not in our hearts. We kill to eat, but we are 

 not hungry; nor should we ever be in these days of plenty, if our guns 

 were wholly turned to rust. No; shooting is only our crude way of try- 

 ing to get acquainted with the children of Nature; and we shall outgrow 

 it some day, just as our ancestors outgrew the custom of shooting mem- 

 bers of another clan at sight. And we shall outgrow it for precisely the 



1819 



