8 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI 
thereafter, before making my trips to the Bridge, I scrupulously noted both wind 
and weather. There was no use going, as I discovered after some fruitless six 
mile walks, if the wind were either east or west, for in those cases it swept the 
Coulee bare. 
On one day when all the conditions were favorable, I found the Coulee on 
the west side of the Bridge occupied by Ruddy Ducks, the most individual and 
interesting of Ducks. The Ruddy might have been developed solely for the 
comfort of beginners tired of wrestling with obscure species. Signs hang all 
over him proclaiming his name. In profile he is a chunky lttle reddish 
brown tub of a Duck, with head and spike tail up at angles. His white cheek 
patch is a sign that all who run may read, and when he turns to swim 
away, the white under coverts of his upraised, uniquely-spiked fan tail label 
him again. But when he turns full face with the sun on him, his bright blue 
bill resting on his puffy ruddy breast is so striking that it seems almost unbe- 
hevable. A Duck with an Alice blue bill seems the height of absurdity! A 
detail decoration of this already overdone figure is added when his wet parted 
crown feathers stand up as two black-pointed crests above his blue bill! 
Five handsome Ruddy drakes and a number of nondescript dingy brown 
ducks were on the Coulee, and from the Bridge I watched them for an hour or 
so, fascinated by the animated courtship play of the drakes, strikingly ruddy 
in the sun. When I arrived only two pairs were in evidence, the puffy little 
drakes looking very cocky and belligerent, suggesting pouter doves with their 
alr of importance and the curious muscular efforts by which they producea 
their strange notes. When I first saw one perform, not knowing about his tra- 
chial air-sae I thought he might be picking at his breast or have something 
stuck in his throat and be choking. With quick nods of the head that jerked 
the chin in, he pumped up and down, till finally a harsh guttural cluck was 
emited from his smooth blue bill. Often in doing chin exercises the little drakes 
pumped up a labored ip-ip-ip-ip-ip—cluck, cluck’, producing it with such effort 
that the vertical tail pressed forward over the back, as if to help in the expulsion, 
afterwards springing erect again. 
Once a drake faced a duck about a yard from him and did his chin exer- 
cises and gave his raucous cluck as if definitely addressing her, but usually the 
performance was for the benefit of a rival. In one ease two drakes faced each 
other a yard or so apart, and after nodding and jerking and clucking, with the 
feathers of their backs bristled up, swam at each other, such a violent chase en- 
suing that at the end the pursued dived to escape the pursuer. When no rivals 
were near, the drakes would sometimes make a noisy rush through the water 
—rising and paddling rapidly as if from pure excess of animal spirits. 
There were soon three pairs of Ruddies on the scene, or rather three ducks 
and three drakes, for courtship was by no means over. As the action pro- 
gressed, 1t became so rapid and complicated that it was hard to keep track of 
individuals and judge the merits of the case. When greatly excited the drakes 
would swim around with heads back and spike tails thrown forward till head 
and tail nearly met, their pose suggesting the courtship attitudinizing of Marsh 
Wrens; but when chasing each other with backs bristled up, an especially belli- 
cose appearance was given by their swimming low with spike tails pressing the 
water, when they would rush along with a noise suggesting castanets. 
Meanwhile the brown ducks, for the most part, swam along the edge of 
the Coulee, feeding or bathing as if quite indifferent to the play going on be- 
