RUDDY DUCK. 68 
Erismatura jamaicensis (Gmel. I. Roddy Duck. 
"Breeding range. The principal summer borne of th<' ruddy duck is 
in the upper Mississippi Valley and the contiguous portions of central 
Canada; it is rare east of the Alleghenies; breeds regularly from 
Maine to northern Ungava; rare visitant in Newfoundland; nesting 
rarely south to Massachusetts (Cape Cod) and probably in Rhode 
Island (Sakonnet); tolerably common in southern Ontario, Michi- 
gan, and Wisconsin, and probably breeds casually in Ohio and Illi- 
nois. West of the Mississippi it breeds regularly to southern Min- 
nesota and northwestern Nebraska and rarely in Kansas. The breed- 
ing range then dips strongly to the south in tin 4 mountains through 
Colorado to northern New Mexico (La Jara and Stinking Spring 
lakes), central Arizona (Stoneman Lake, altitude 6,200 feet), southern 
California (Los Angeles County), northern Lower California to about 
latitude' 31 , and probably northwestern Chihuahua (Pacheco). The 
breeding range on the Pacific slope extends north at least to central 
British Columbia (Cariboo District); in the interior to Great Slave 
Lake and Hudson Bay (York Factory). The above is the normal 
breeding range, but this species has the peculiar habit of establishing 
colonies far to the southward. Such colonies have been discovered at 
Santiago, near the southern end. of Lower California, in the Valley of 
Mexico, at the Lake of Duenas, Guatemala, and on the islands of Cuba, 
Porto Rico, and Carriacou. The breeding season of these isolated 
colonies bears no relation to the usual breeding time in the bird's 
ordinary range. In northern North Dakota the earliest eggs are 
deposited the first week in June; in Manitoba and Saskatchewan incom- 
plete sets were found the middle of June; the same date — the middle 
of June — marks the deposition of the eggs in central Colorado. The 
first half of June may be said to be the usual time for the beginning 
of nesting. On Cape Cod, Massachusetts, downy } T oung were taken 
August 17; in northern New Mexico September IT; in southern Lower 
California, November 1*5; at Lake Duenas, Guatemala, in June; while 
in ( luba and Porto Kico eggs were taken in November, and on Carriacou 
Island in January. 
Winter range. — In its choice of climate and environment the ruddy 
duck varies widely. While many individuals retire in winter to the 
southern part of the range, to southern Lower California, Tepic, Valley 
of Mexico, Oaxaca, and central Guatemala, others remain as far north 
as southern British Columbia. The northern limit in the Rocky 
Mountain region is Arizona and New Mexico; the species does not 
seem to remain through the winter in northern Texas, but at this 
season it is found in southern Illinois, Pennsylvania, the coast of 
Massachusetts, and even to Maine. During the winter the ruddy duck 
has been recorded in the Bermudas, the Bahamas (New Providence), 
4510— No. 26—06 5 
