11 . T . r A N K 
() 15 
clubhouse on the Delaware. Glancing to iny 
right, I saw four canvasbacks coming with a 
rush directly over his head and called to him 
to “mark.” lie jumped to his feet a little 
too late and instead of turning around and 
taking them going from him he undertook to 
fire at them right over his head. In leaning 
backward, however, he lost his balance and 
went splash into the water on his back, but, 
firing as he fell, he brought down two of them. 
The cold bath didn’t disconcert him in the 
least; getting up and shaking himself like a 
spaniel, he declared that it was the best shot 
he had ever made in his whole experience as a 
duck hunter. 
The red-head {aythya amencana) is quite a 
common duck in the southern sections of the 
Coast hunting grounds. Though purely a 
bay or saltwater duck, that is, belonging to 
the subfamily Quligtdmce) it is not found 
to any great extent on the saltwater marshes, 
preferring the higher lakes, ponds and 
resei’voirs of the mountain valleys and foot- 
hills. I found them one season in great 
numbers on the San Ilafael marshes, high 
up in the mountains of Lower California, 
and all the shooting two friends and myself 
wished to do had no effect in driving 
them away, although the ponds of the marsh 
were few and small. 
THE SPECULUM AS GUIDE 
The American scaup duck, or blue-bill 
{aythya marila neartica), the lesser scaup 
{aythya afpnis) and the ring-neck {aythya 
collaris) are very plentiful in the northern 
section as well as on the higher lakes of 
Mexico. The.se three .species are generally 
grouped together by the sportsmen of the 
Coast under the name of black jacks, black 
ducks and black-heads, all three species 
being considered as the one variety, and the 
lesser scaup as the younger birds. While I 
am making no attempt at classification or 
technical description in this paper, I will here 
state for the guidance of those who wish to 
know to which species each of these ducks 
belong, that the males can easily be distin- 
guished by noting the color of the speculum 
or bright band on the wings and by the color 
of the metallic reflection of the head and neck. 
The speculum of the American scaup, or 
larger blue-bill {aythya marila neartica), is 
white, with the head ajid neck showing a 
greeni.sh reflection ((uite ])ronounced in the 
smdight. The le.s.ser .scaiq), or litlle bhie-l)ill 
{aythya affinis) has a white speculum the same 
as the larger species, but the metallic reflection 
of Ihq head and neck is purple. The ring-neck 
{aythya collaris) has a gray speculum, which, 
though ([uite light in color, can ea.sily be 
distinguished from the pure white of the other 
two. The reflection of the head of the ring- 
neck is a dark indigo blue. The bill of the 
ring-neck is ([uite ditl'erent from that of the 
scaujis, being much darker in color and more 
of a sooty tinge and with a faint bluish band 
across it about half an inch from the end. 
The females of the latter re.semble each other 
very closely but the difference in size will 
generally determine to which species they 
belong. They can be told from the female 
ring-neck by their white speculums. The 
female ring-neck has the gray of the male, 
but this does not distinguish it from the female 
red-head. The smaller size of the ring-neck 
and darker appearance of the head and neck 
will always indicate to which species the female 
belongs. The bill of the female red-heatl 
meets the skull in quite an abriqit manner 
while that of the ring-neck has more of the 
slo[)ing character of the canvasback. In the 
breeding season the ring-neck male has a dirty 
orange ring around the neck wliich disaj)pears 
wholly, or nearly so, before the beginning of 
the hunting season. The ring-neck is gener- 
ally more plentiful on the fresh waters. I 
have seen great numbers of them at the mouth 
of the Colorado river. In fact, both the rinp:- 
neck and the les.ser scaup range much farther 
south than do the larger species, for while few 
of the larger scaup are seen in Mexico great 
quantities of the little blue-bills are found 
throughout the Republic, especially on the 
salt marshes of the two coasts. All of these 
three species breed along the mountain lakes 
from California north. 
The American golden eye {(jlaucionctta 
clangula ainsricana), while not at all common 
on our shooting grounds — only occasional 
kills being made — are found in good numbers 
on the Gulf coast of Mexico. 
The Barrows golden-eye {glaucionetta isl- 
andica) is another of our visitors that are seen 
only in small numbers and are seldom met 
with far from the coast. 
THE UGLY DI^CKLING 
The ruddy duck {erismaUira rubida) is a 
very common duck on our shooting grounds, 
from one end to the other, though as a rule it 
is not much sought after by our s])ortsmen. 
When feeding on the .salt marshes they are not 
very palatable, it is true, but when killed on 
fresh waters they are one of our finest flavored 
ducks, if properly cooked. After refusing 
