Duck {Erismatura jamaicensis) 



Range: Breeds from central British Columbia, Great Slave Lake, southern 

 Keewatin, and northern Ungava south to northern Lower California, central 

 Arizona, northern New Mexico, northwestern Nebraska, southern Minnesota, 

 southern Michigan, southern Ontario, and Maine ; winters from southern British 

 Columbia, Arizona, New Mexico, southern Illinois, Maine and Pennsylvania, 

 south to the Lesser Antilles and Costa Rica. 



The ruddy duck, or "dumb bird," as it is called in New England, alias the 

 rook of the Potomac region, has a wide range in the United States from seacoast 

 to seacoast, and formerly nested over much of this wide territory. That it is not 

 unknown to sportsmen and others is attested by the fact that Trumbull in his 

 ''Names and Portraits of Birds" gives sixty-seven synonyms under which it 

 appears. Some of these, as "deaf duck," "fool duck," "dumb bird," are in- 

 dicative of its disposition ; while others like "bull neck," "spine-tail duck," mark 

 certain physical peculiarities. In appearance it is quite unlike any other duck, and 

 when swimming, its plump, round body and uplifted tail serve to distinguish it to 

 the merest tyro. It is extremely sociable and unites in large flocks, sometimes 

 in company with other species. Over most of its range the little ruddy duck was 

 formerly lightly esteemed for food, and consequently enjoyed comparative im- 

 munity from the pursuit of sportsmen and even from market gunners. As other 

 more highly prized species diminished in numbers, the ruddy attracted more 

 attention, and in waters like the Potomac River, where the rookies formerly 

 gathered in fall by thousands, only a beggary remnant remains. Ruddies are 

 the more easily killed because they do not readily take wing, but being expert 

 divers endeavor, when pursued, to escape by diving. The gunner aware of this 

 weakness has only to persist in pursuit of the birds, one after another, to secure 

 most or all of a flock. 



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