8 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI thereafter, before making my trips to the Bridge, I scrupulously noted both wind and weather. There was no use going, as I discovered after some fruitless six mile walks, if the wind were either east or west, for in those cases it swept the Coulee bare. On one day when all the conditions were favorable, I found the Coulee on the west side of the Bridge occupied by Ruddy Ducks, the most individual and interesting of Ducks. The Ruddy might have been developed solely for the comfort of beginners tired of wrestling with obscure.species. Signs hang all over him proclaiming his name. In profile he is a chunky little reddish brown tub of a Duck, with head and spike tail up at angles. His white cheek patch is a sign that all who run may read, and when he turns to swim away, the white under coverts of his upraised, uniquely-spiked fan tail label him again. But when he turns full face with the sun on him, his bright blue
bill resting on his puffy ruddy breast is so striking that it seems almost unbe-
lievable. A Duck with an Alice blue bill seems the height of absurdity! A ' detail decoration of this already overdone figure is added when his wet parted crown feathers stand up as two black-pointed crests above hig blue bill! Five handsome Ruddy drakes and a number of nondescript dingy brown ducks were on the Coulee, and from the Bridge I watched them for an hour or so, fascinated by the animated courtship play of the drakes, strikingly ruddy in the sun. When I arrived only two pairs were in evidence, the puffy little drakes looking very cocky and belligerent, suggesting pouter doves with their air of importance and the curious muscular. efforts by which they produced their strange notes. When I first saw one perform, not knowing about his tra- chial air-sac I thought he might be picking at his breast or have something stuck in his throat and be choking. With quick nods of. the head that jerked the chin in, he pumped up and down, till finally a harsh guttural cluck was eraired from his smooth blue bill. Often in doing chin exercises the little drakes pumped up a labored ip-ip-ip-?p-?p--cluck, cluck', producing it with such effort that the vertical tail pressed forward over the back, as if to help in the expulsion, afterwards springing erect again. Once a drake faced a duck about a yard from him and did his chin exer- cises and gave his raucous cluck as if definitely addressing her, but usually the performance was for the benefit of a rival. In one case two drakes faced each other a yard or so apart, and after nodding and jerking and clucking, with the feathers of their backs bristled up, swam at each other, such a violent chase en- suing that at the end the pursued dived to escape the pursuer. When no rivals were near, the drakes would sometimes make a noisy rush 'through the water --rising and paddling rapidly as if from pure excess of animal spirits. There were soon three pairs of Ruddies on the scene, or rather three ducks and three drakes, for courtship was by no means over. As the action pro- gressed, it became so rapid and complicated that it was hard to keep track of individuals and judge the merits of the case. When greatly excited the drakes. would swim around with heads back and spike tails thrown forward till head and tail nearly met, their pose suggesting the courtship attitudinizing of Marsh Wrens; but when chasing each other with backs bristled up, an especially belli- cbse appearance was given by their swimming low with spike tails pressing the water, when they would rush along with a noise suggesting castanets. Meanwhile the brown ducks, for the most part, swam along the edge of [he Coulee, feeding or bathing as if quite indifferent to the play going on be-
