RUDDY DUCK
Erismatura jamaicensis (Gmelin)
Other Names.—Butterball; Bullhead; Bullneck; Dipper Duck.
Description.—Both sexes with thick necks, short upper tail-coverts, and stiff tails; about half as large as a Mallard. Male: Crown black; cheeks and chin white; throat, neck, and back rich rufous; lower back and tail blackish; breast and belly silvery white, somewhat mottled along sides; bill pale gray-blue; eyes black. Female and immature: Upperparts dark grayish brown, feathers marked with narrow, wavy, buffy bars; sides of head and upper throat whitish; lower throat and neck grayish; underparts silvery white. Length: 15 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—Fairly common and regular as a migrant, sometimes abundant, from April 1 to May 15 and from October 1 to November 15. It is seen along smaller as well as larger waterways where it may dive readily upon being approached.
Ruddy Duck
Male Female
The Ruddy Duck, with its stiff, upturned tail, is comical in appearance. The male, while in bright breeding plumage, is given to holding himself with a jaunty air. They are expert divers but sometimes have difficulty in rising from the water, for their wings are comparatively small. As they get under way they patter with their great feet while their wings beat the water noisily. The neck of the Ruddy Duck is unusually large for a duck. The head may even be pushed back into the skin of the neck; in most ducks the circumference of the neck is noticeably less than that of the head at its greatest diameter.
CANADA GOOSE
Branta canadensis canadensis (Linnæus)
Other Names.—Wild Goose; Honker.
Description.—Size large, about that of a domestic Goose, with about the same proportions; sexes similar. Head and neck black, a broad band under eye, and across throat, white; upperparts brownish gray, the feathers margined with a lighter shade, giving a somewhat scaled appearance; breast and sides gray-brown, more or less as in back; belly white; rump and tail black; upper tail-coverts white. Feet and bill black; eyes dark brown. Length: About 3 feet.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A regular and sometimes common migrant from mid-February to early April and from October 15 to November 30, sometimes occurring in winter, even when ice covers the lakes, at which times the great birds stand about on the frozen surface. As a rule, Canada Geese do not stop long in Pennsylvania; most flocks do not linger here at all, merely passing over.
Canada Goose
For us, since the days of our forefathers, and for the Red Man who originally inhabited Penn’s Woods, the V-shaped spring flocks of Canada Geese have heralded the breaking up of the winter, and, in the fall, the coming of the cold season. Canada Geese migrate both by day and night, but they are noticed at night more often than by day because in the comparative stillness of the dark hours their loud, musical bugling drifts down to us as we lie awake, thrilled at the sound. Could we see the great birds, could we know the distant clime toward which they are heading, some of the mystery might be dispelled; but their long journey, their great bodies speeding along at 60 miles an hour or more, and their wide, swishing wings are only suggested by the clamor and challenge that comes to us, holds us spellbound, then gradually dies away as the flock passes on.