The Ruddy Duck 



Ruddy Ducks nest in greater or less numbers upon most of our lakes 

 and coastal ponds. During the nesting season the female is excessively 

 timid and may not often be seen — never in the vicinity of her nest. The 

 male, on the contrary, spends much of his time in the open water hobnob- 

 bing with grebes and Redheads, and seems to have about as important 

 business as the average politician. The nest is hidden in the reeds of some 

 low island or marshy brink. The birds are said to occupy old coot nests 

 at times, and at others to build up very handsome structures of their own, 

 raising the eggs a foot or so above the surface of the water. At other times 

 a shabby shakedown may lie upon the wet muck of a swampy island. 

 Usually some sort of a floating structure is devised, and if this can be 

 concealed under a canopy of broken-down tules, so much the better for 

 the bird. 



No greater surprise could be devised in oological duckdom than the 

 egg of a Ruddy Duck. With surface rough and chalky, where others are 

 oil-finished, dead white, where others are tinted, it is still the extraordinary 

 size which provokes astonishment. The bird is notably small as ducks 

 go, although of a compact and stocky build, but the egg is easily the 

 largest of inland duck eggs, not excepting those of the Canvasback. On 

 this account it might readily be believed that a half dozen should consti- 

 tute a set, and it often does; but we are told that one of these birds some- 

 times deposits as high as a dozen or fourteen eggs; and there are two 

 instances on record, both by A. M. Ingersoll, Santa Cruz, June 26, 1883, 

 of nests containing nineteen eggs, each set disposed in three layers. 



The Ruddy Duck lines its nests sparingly, or not at all, with down, 

 trusting evidently to the protective cover of the reeds. Nevertheless, I 

 have found exposed nests, which at the approach of noisy footsteps had 

 been hastily covered over with broken tules and debris scratched from the 

 edge. 



Nature's purpose in devising these massive eggs is quickly discovered 

 when we see that the newly hatched young, more fully equipped than those 

 of other species, are able to dive at once. On this account, therefore, the 

 mother bird, if caught in the open with her brood, does not concern herself 

 over their welfare. But she beats a hasty retreat to cover, knowing that 

 the ducklings will follow by submarine route. 



The "Game Birds of California" predicts that when the more de- 

 sirable species are still further reduced in numbers, the covetous eye of 

 the gunner will fall upon this bird, as it has upon the Mud-hens of the 

 East. Would that some earnest word of mine might shield them from 

 such a dismal fate. Our pond life is becoming pauperized enough as it 

 is, God knows. Why should we fall upon these innocent and ardent little 

 Spats, and terrorize them until they are forced to drag out a surreptitious 



1844 



