DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: REDHEAD 
133 
Burford lakes when visited the last of September, 1904, and since when shot at they 
repeatedly refused to fly, diving and swimming away perhaps, but not taking wing, 
it looked as if they had bred there, and that the young and molting birds were not in 
condition to fly (Bailey). Nine years later when these lakes were visited by Ligon 
in the breeding season he found them the commonest of the larger ducks both on the 
Burford Lakes and on Clear Lake. A nest with eggs was found July 18, 1913, and 
an old bird accompanied by newly 
hatched young, July 21. [At 
Lake Burford in 1918, 30 pairs 
were located and a nest with 14 
eggs was found June 13; four 
single males were seen June 6, 
and a flock of 12, June 8; after 
which they were common (Wet- 
more). They are found on moun 
tain lakes in Colfax County 
(Charles Springer, 1925).] 
Fall migrants appeared on 
Beaver Lake August 26-27,1908 
(Birdseye), and the species has 
been noted as late as October 26, 
1908, at San Rafael (Bailey), to 
November 17, 1909, at Garfield 
(Goldman); one collected from a 
small flock on a prairie pond at 
Clapham, October 26, 1893 
(Seton), [near Albuquerque 
not common but generally seen about November 25 (Leopold, 1919)]. 
In winter they have been noted on the Carlsbad Bird Reserve, February, 1914 
(Wilder), January, 1915, winter of 1915-16, [December, 1916; also on the Rio 
Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant Butte), noted November 23-December 9, 1916 
(Willett)]. 
Spring migration begins in March and by the last day of the month in 1902 the 
species had passed north to Las Vegas (Atkins). [At Silver City it is fairly abundant 
both spring and fall. One was taken March 10, 1919 (Kellogg). Since 1916, 
during each migrating season, they have been seen in the high lakes on the tributaries 
of the East Gila River (Ligon).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Over shallow water in reeds or cat-tails, on old muskrat houses, or on 
marshy or grassy ground near water; usually deep, well made of aquatic plant stems, 
grasses, reeds, or cat-tail, lined with white down. Eggs: Usually 10 to 15, light olive- 
buff to cream-buff, like the Mallard’s but larger. 
Food. —Wild rice, wild celery, pondweed, and other aquatic plants; acorns, 
beechnuts, and also insects, leeches, tadpoles, frogs, snails, fresh water clams, lizards, 
and small fish. Of two taken at Lake Burford September 28, 1904, from the deep 
part of the lake where pondweed grew under the surface, the stomach of one was 
filled with seeds of j uncus and sedge with a few green stems of pondweed, and that of 
the other contained mainly pondweed. 
General' Habits. —The Redhead is well named indeed, for seen in 
the right light his ruddy head burns as does that of a Red-headed Wood¬ 
pecker. In flight, the white of his body makes a striking patch between 
