64 
DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS 
Distribution. — North America, breeding from Sitka and the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence north to the arctic regions ; south in winter to Florida, 
Colorado, and Lower California. 
Nest. — In a bunch of marsh grass, on ground in tall grass, or under 
low branches of scrubby trees; made of plant stems and lined with down. 
Eggs: 5 to 8, cream color. 
The surf scoters are abundant on both coasts, and during the 
breeding season quite common on the large northern inland waters. 
Colonel Goss in describing their habits says that they are “at 
home as well in the surging surf as upon the smooth waters, resting 
and sleeping at night out on the open waters. . . . They rise in a 
running, laborious manner, but when fairly on the wing fly rapidly, 
and in stormy weather hug closely to the water.” The ducks are 
very active when feeding, diving so constantly and rapidly one after 
another that they are continually disappearing and popping up. 
The bivalve is a favorite food with them, Colonel Goss says, its 
shell apparently digesting with as much ease as its contents. As 
they also eat fish, their flesh is coarse and rather rank. 
GENUS ERISMATURA. 
167. Erismatura jamaicensis ( Gmel.). Ruddy Duck. 
Bill short and widest near end, bright blue in adult male. Adult male.: 
top and back of head black; neck 
and rest of upper parts chestnut; 
cheeks and chin white; belly 
gray, washed with silvery white, 
or sometimes rusty. Female and 
immature: upper parts plain 
grayish brown; sides of head 
whitish, with a dusky streak 
from corner of mouth to back of 
ear; under parts gray, washed 
_ , _ with silvery white or rusty. 
Length: 13.50-16.00, wmg 5.75-6.00, bill 1.50-1.60. 
Distribution. — North America and south to Colombia, breeding over 
much of its North American range. 
Nest. — A bulky mass of plant stems on the water among tules, reeds, 
or cat-tails. Eggs: 9 to 14, creamy or light buffy. 
The ruddy duck is common over much of the western United 
States, and breeds abundantly in places that suit its taste, especially 
in the grass-fringed lakes of the northern plains and the big shallow 
tule lakes of the Great Basin country. It is a duck of much indi¬ 
viduality. It sits jauntily on the water, its spike tail tilted up, and 
with bold audacity holds its ground till you are at close quarters, 
then as you think it is going to fly, and raise your gun for a wing 
shot, it suddenly dives. Its skill at hiding under water till it has 
gained the other side of a point or island would do credit to a grebe, 
