164 NYROCA AMERICANA 



Adult Female : In general appearance like the female of the Pochard but the feathers of the scapular 

 region lack vermiculations, being dark brown, tipped with grayish or brownish. The head is very 

 much like that of the European species but the lower surface is lighter colored, particularly the lower 

 abdomen. There appears to be a tendency to albinism among female Red-heads. 



Iris yellow to hazel-brown. Bill blue except the tip, which is black. Legs and feet bluish slate- 

 color. 



Wing 210-230 mm.; bill 45; tarsus 39. 



Weight 2 pounds to 2 pounds, 9 ounces (0.90 to 1.16 kilograms). Average weight of December 

 birds at Pea Isle, North Carolina, was 2 pounds, 4 ounces (1.02 kilograms). 



Young Female ln First (Juvenal) Plumage: Resembles the adult female, but the feathers of the 

 mantle and scapulars lack the well-defined light edges, while the abdomen is streaked and mottled 

 with brown; never silvery white. Some of the tail-feathers are usually blunt at the tips. 



Young Male in First Plumage: Very much like the female except that the head is always darker 

 and richer in color, and by autumn is distinctly red. The iris is a brighter yellow. Very early in the 

 autumn (September) a few vermiculated feathers appear on the mantle or scapulars. At the same 

 time, or a little later, black begins to show on the upper breast and around the lower neck, while the 

 mantle still remains as in the young female. The plumage is nearly complete by January. 



Male in Eclipse Plumage : The head loses most of its full rich red and becomes dull grayish brown, 

 while the vermiculated scapulars and flanks are filled in with dull-brown feathers, until little or no 

 vermiculation is left. The jet-black mantle and breast are mixed with brown and lose their luster. 



Young in Down (see Plate 59) : Like the young of the European Pochard, light sulphur yellow be- 

 low and yellow-brown on the upper surface. Face markings and orbital streak lacking, and the 

 usual scapular-, wing-, and rump-patches just barely visible. 



Note: The young male probably never arrives at his most perfect state of plumage the first spring. 

 The most perfect specimens show very richly colored heads and very black breasts, sharply defined 

 from the white of the abdomen. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Red-head is one of the most popular and one of the best known of American ducks, though it has 

 a comparatively restricted range. The breeding area includes the northwestern part of the United 

 Western States and the southwestern part of Canada. A stray specimen taken on Kodiak 

 Canada Island is the only instance of its occurrence in Alaska (Cooke, 1906). In Canada the 



northern limit of the breeding range appears to be Lake Athabasca, at the western end of which 

 Harper (MS.) noted the species in small numbers in May and June, 1920. The U.S. Biological Survey 

 and the Museum of Comparative Zoology have specimens taken at Fort Chipewyan. R. MacFarlane 

 (1908), however, states that a trader, B. R. Ross, saw a few Red-heads at Fort Resolution, Great 

 Slave Lake, where he also secured a nest and eggs! Commonly the species breeds only in southern 

 Saskatchewan, where it has been taken in summer or nesting at Prince Albert (Ferry, 1910), about 

 Cumberland House and at the Pas (R. MacFarlane, 1908), at Chemawawin {fide Preble, 1902) and 

 especially in the southwest (Bent, 1907). As to its present breeding status in Manitoba there is little 

 to say, but it used to be very common there in the nesting season, especially in the western parts 

 (Seton, 1886; E. E. Thompson, 1891). The species undoubtedly nests all over the southern half of 

 Alberta as far north as Buffalo Lake (C. B. Horsbrugh, 1915) and rarely at Edmonton (Soper, 1918; 

 Wolfe, in litt.). Mr. Brooks writes me that he found it had bred at a lake near Andrew, Alberta, in 



