130 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
fringes along the edges of the upper mandible for skimming the surface 
and straining out minute plants and animals.” Of all the ducks, as 
Mr. Bent says, it is most essentially a surface feeder, and frequents 
marshes, shallows, and flooded lands. When not skimming the surface, 
it puts its head under water and if the water is not too shallow, stands 
on its head with tail in air. The brown female shows very little as she 
swims low through the flooded meadows, but, when preening, the yellow 
under mandible show T s and when she stretches her wing with her orange 
foot it can be seen across the water. This is one of the few ducks, 
Mr. Aldo Leopold finds, which does not avoid “dead” sloughs — those 
containing stagnant alkali water. 
Where the Shovellers nest commonly, as on the prairie sloughs of 
North Dakota, a drake appearing uninvited on a neighboring slough is 
sometimes given a sharp lesson; but at other times the rivalry of the 
drakes takes a milder form. Once when I had been watching a pair 
swimming around on a slough, “a second drake, showing his blackish 
head, white breast, and dark maroon belly, flew over and lit on the 
water with bill tilted up airily, and at once started across the slough 
after drake No. 1, clucking and raising and lowering his neck, his bill 
held slightly above the horizontal. No. 1 promptly swam out and met 
him half way, w'hereupon both did head exercises. Once when per¬ 
forming the two stood facing each other only a yard or so apart, raising 
and lowering their heads.” 
Another time when a pair of Shovellers had been enjoying them¬ 
selves, bathing, feeding, and “paddling around close together in a pretty 
confidential, conjugal way for some time, a brown sister flew in. At this 
the duck quickly swam out toward the visitor, as if with friendly greet¬ 
ing, and the drake stretched up till he looked very long necked and gave 
several jerky bows of the head, after which he loyally swam off to his 
mate. The visitor, left alone, swam off by herself” (1918, pp. 31-32). 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., Auk, XTX, 3-4, 6, 1902; U. S. Nat. 
Mus. Bull. 126, 135-143, 1923.— McAtee, W. L., Auk, XXXIX, 3S0-386, 1922 
(food). — Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaflet 84, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc. 
WOOD DUCK: Aix sponsa (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Male: Length: About 19-20.50 inches, wing 9-9.50, bill 1.4. 
Female: Length: About 17-19.5 inches. Adult male in breeding plumage: Crest 
long and drooping, rich purple and green, streaked until white; throat and prongs on 
cheeks and hind neck, white; back iridescent greenish brown, tail long and dark 
with bronzy green reflections; speculum purplish steel blue; chest mahogany, spotted 
with white, bordered by a white bar edged with black before bend of wing; sides 
pale buffy; rest of underparts white except patch of metallic purplish on each side 
at base of tail; iris, eyelids, and base of bill red; legs and toes dull yellow, webs dusky. 
