RED-HEAD 171 



like mee-ow, so exactly like that of a cat that the first time I heard it from captive 

 birds I could not believe that it came from a duck. It is similar to the note of the 

 male Pochard but distinctly more catlike. In spite of the fact that this had been cor- 

 rectly described some time ago (Langille, 1884) many writers, even to the present 

 time, have shown complete ignorance of it; one recent observer (Munro, 1919) con- 

 sidered it a feeding note. In reality this cat-call is heard only in the spring. Wetmore 

 (1920) who describes it as a "curious drawn-out groaning call, resembling the syl- 

 lable whee-ough given in a high tone," heard it at Lake Burford, New Mexico, from 

 males during display. I have remarked that this catlike note is usually just audible 

 at thirty or forty yards, but sometimes it carries farther than this. The throat- 

 swelling which ordinarily accompanies it can sometimes be seen even when no sound 

 is audible, so that at times the utterance must be very faint. Mr. F. Harper (MS.) 

 says he could hear nothing of it at 100 to 125 yards. 



From a captive male, who was executing some curious jerky movements with his 

 bill, I several times heard a short coughing sound, barely audible at twenty-five 

 yards. Was this part of a display? 



The female uses at any season, a coarse churring sound, usually written kurr- 

 Jcurr-kurr, very much like that of the female Pochard or Scaup. This call has been 

 described by some as a distinct quack, but to me it seems very different from the 

 note of a Mallard or a Black Duck, and hardly to be compared to it. Wetmore 

 (1920) describes a modification of this note which he heard during display and which 

 he writes quek que-e-ek, the last a peculiar rattling note. 



The trachea resembles that of the male Pochard. The labyrinth is flattened and 

 smaller than it is in the Canvas-back. 



Food. The Red-head, like the Canvas-back, is extremely fond of wild celery and 

 will take it wherever it can find it, but is not at all dependent upon it. The analysis 

 of 358 stomachs (U.S. Biological Survey MS.) which I have been able to study shows 

 nothing particularly noteworthy about the diet of this duck. Eighty-three of them 

 came from Okanagan Landing, British Columbia, where the birds were living at the 

 time almost entirely on musk-grass which forces the proportion of this food far too 

 high in the general average. 



Vegetable food was a little over 90% of the whole and the pond-weed family made 

 up 38.88% of it. The favorite food was sago pond-weed (Potamogeton pectinatus) , 

 present in 62 gizzards. The seeds of all the pond-weeds were taken in very large 

 numbers (as many as 1242 in one gizzard) as well as the tubers. Widgeon-grass is 

 clearly another very valuable food for attracting Red-heads and the enormous num- 

 ber of 5120 seeds of this plant were taken from one bird. 



Algae, of which musk-grass was the favorite, comprised 15.92% of the whole, for 

 reasons given above, while sedges were found in 86 gizzards and were 9.84% of all 



