s ducks I have ever seen was the ruddy duck,
called in the scientific manuals _Erismatura rubida_. As I sat on a rock
on the shore, watching the aquatic fowl, one of the male ruddy ducks,
accompanied by three or four females, swam out from the reeds into an
open space where I could see him plainly with my field-glass. A
beautiful picture he presented, as he glided proudly about on the water,
surrounded by his devoted harem. Imagine, if you can, how regal he must
have appeared--his broad, flat bill, light blue, widening out at the
commissure, and seeming to shade off into the large white cheeks, which
looked like snowy puffballs on the sides of his head; his crown, black
and tapering; his neck, back, and sides, a rich, glossy brownish-red;
his lower parts, "silky, silvery white, 'watered' with dusky, yielding,
gray undulations"; and his wing-coverts and jauntily perked-up tail,
black. If that was not a picture worthy of an artist's brush I have
never seen one in the outdoor world.

No less quaint was his conduct. That he was proud and self-conscious, no
one seeing him could doubt; and it was just as plain from his
consequential mien, that he was posing before his train of plainly clad
wives, who, no doubt, looked upon him as the greatest "catch" of the
lake. Unlike most ducks, in swimming this haughty major carries his head
erect, and even bent backward at a sharp angle; and his short tail is
cocked up and bent forward, so that his glossy back forms a graceful
half-circle or more, and does not slope downward, as do the backs of
most ducks on the water.

Of all the odd gestures, this fellow's carried off the palm. He would
draw his head up and back, then thrust it forward a few inches, extend
his blue bill in a horizontal line, and at the same time emit a low,
coarse squawk that I could barely hear. Oddly enough, all the females,
staid as they were, imitated their liege lord's deportment. It was their
way of protesting against my ill-bred intrusion into their demesne.

Presently a second male came out into the open space, accompanied by a
retinue of wives, and then a third emerged, similarly attended. With
this there was a challenging among the rivals that was interesting to
witness; they fairly strutted about on the water, now advancing, now
retreating, and occasionally almost, but never quite, closing in combat.
Sometimes one would pursue another for a rod or more, in a swift rush
that would make the spray fly and cut