RING-NECKED DUCK 189 



The trachea was first described and figured by Charles Bonaparte (1824) and is 

 said to have a close resemblance to that of the Tufted Duck. It is about 190 mm. 

 long and of nearly the same diameter throughout. The tracheal box is well developed 

 with a strong bony keel and membranous windows. It is almost exactly the same in 

 structure as that of the Greater Scaup with which I have directly compared it in 

 fresh specimens. 



Food. The food appears to be more vegetable than animal, at least in the winter. 

 Gundlach (Cabanis, 1857) long ago found their crops full of the seeds of grasses 

 and Audubon recorded roots and seeds of grasses, as well as snails and all kinds of 

 aquatic insects, in addition to small fish and crayfish. In one case he took a frog 

 with a body two inches long from a stomach, but the larger animal objects are doubt- 

 less very exceptional. 



Courtship and Nesting. I have not seen the display in this species. William 

 Percy watched about forty or fifty males courting four females on the Louisiana 

 marshes near Grand Chenier on February 18. He noticed that these males held their 

 tails very high, almost perpendicularly, and extended the crest. They also brought 

 their heads back but without lifting the bill. He made particular note of the tail 

 being held higher than in Scaups or Pochards. Audubon evidently was familiar with 

 these courtship activities for he says that, especially toward spring they have a 

 "constant practice of raising the head in a curved manner, partially erecting the 

 occipital feathers, etc." The females he saw took no part in the display. 



The laying season is early, certainly much earlier than with either of the Scaups 

 or the Scoters. Whether this duck nests before the Red-head I cannot say, as the 

 available dates are too few and far between. However, the latter part of May and 

 early June is the usual time, but middle and late June nests are also recorded (Cooke, 

 1906; Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1884; Roberts, 1880; Job, 1899; Bent, 1901-02; 

 A. Brooks, 1903; Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918). 



The nest seems to be rather a well-built affair but it is not at all like the bulky 

 rush nests of the Pochards or the Ruddy Duck. One was placed in a tussock of 

 grass standing in eight inches of water and with grass arched over it (A. Brooks, 1 903) . 

 Another taken eight miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 27, was on an old 

 sunken muskrat-house. It was compact and bulky, built mainly of fine grass, with 

 a little moss intermingled. On the outside the grass was long and circularly disposed, 

 while the bottom inside was composed of short, broken pieces, and the inside rim of 

 fine grass bent and loosely tangled together with considerable down amongst it. 

 Mr. Job found one breeding among rushes in the reedy, boggy arm of a lake in the 

 Turtle Mountains of North Dakota. 



The clutch seems to be large, perhaps averaging around nine or ten, but as many 



