REDHEAD
146. Marila americana. 19 in.
Note the shape of the bill of this species, as compared to that of the similarly colored [Canvas-back]. The male Redhead has a bluish bill with a black tip, and his back is much darker than that of the Canvas-back; eye yellow. The female has the throat white and the back plain grayish-brown, without bars. Redheads dive and swim with great agility; they feed largely upon water plants and mollusks which they get from the bottom of ponds, or along the seashore. They breed very abundantly in the sloughs of the prairies in the Northwest.
Notes.—A hollow, rapid croaking.
Nest.—Of grasses, lined with feathers, in marshes. Their 6 to 12 eggs are buffy white (2.40 × 1.70); May, June.
Range.—Breeds chiefly in the interior, from Minnesota and Dakota northward, and to a lesser degree north from Maine. Winters in southern part of the U. S.
