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birds sail gradually up to the chosen spot, usually where other ducks are feeding, and 

 drop in their midst with many splashings. But while this is the usual method adopted 

 by newcomers, sometimes the program is changed and the birds, attracted by a 

 large concourse of their relatives, particularly if the day be calm and the sun shin- 

 ing with considerable heat, will suddenly drop from out the sky in a rapid zigzag 

 course, as if one wing of each duck had been broken, and they cross and recross each 

 other in the rapid descent, their fall accompanied by a loud whirring sound, as the 

 air is forced between the primaries. On such occasions the flock is all mixed up 

 together in a most bewildering manner, until, arriving a few feet above the water the 

 wings become motionless and the birds glide up to and alight by the side of their 

 desired companions." 



Enormous numbers may suddenly arrive from the north within the space of an 

 hour or two, and sportsmen who have been lucky enough to be on the spot describe 

 it as one of the most impressive sights to be seen in the bird world. 



Dr. H. B. Bigelow tells me that once at Long Point, Lake Erie, he saw a great 

 flight of Red-heads depart from the marsh. They began to rise up in flocks of from 

 fifty to several hundred during mid-afternoon and after circling around and rising 

 to a great height bore off directly south. This movement was kept up all the rest of 

 the afternoon and by the next morning few Red-heads were left in the marsh. Mr. 

 Frank Benson saw the Red-heads arrive at the same place one morning, coming 

 down from a great height. The flight lasted a couple of hours and at the end of that 

 time the marsh, which before was empty, swarmed with them. 



Association with other Species. The little straggling flocks of Red-heads 

 which come, as by accident, to our Massachusetts ponds, are almost always associ- 

 ated with Lesser Scaups; sometimes one or two Red-heads in a flock of Scaup, and 

 sometimes the reverse. 



On the wintering grounds, as a rule, Red-heads and Canvas-backs occupy rather 

 different areas of the same sound and do not intermingle. Red-heads feed in shal- 

 lower water and are often accompanied by Scaup, the Lesser Scaup if the water is 

 fresh, the Greater Scaup if the water is salt. In some places Red-heads are found 

 mixed with huge rafts of American Coots. I do not believe that American Widgeon 

 feed among Red-heads or Canvas-backs so much as some of the older writers seemed 

 to believe. 



Red-heads show a certain irresponsibility in the manner in which they deposit 

 their eggs in the nests of other species. Thus, on the breeding grounds, they are not 

 only very sociable amongst themselves but they intermingle with Canvas-backs and 

 Ruddies. 



Voice. The only typical note which I have ever heard the male utter is a sound 



