Mallard notes, v4295
Page 295
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Mayhew 1950 Feb. 26 Conway Ranch, 2 miles east of Woodland, Yolo Co., Calif. some Cinnamon Teal. At the southern end of the main canal I found a ♂ + ♀ swimming together as though they were already paired. When they flushed, they flew about 100 yards up the ditch and landed about 30 feet from another pair, + about 100 feet from still another pair. In the air, the ♂ followed the ♀, just as is the case with paired individuals. A moment later the first pair flew on up the ditch about 50 yards farther, again with the ♀ leading the way. Mar. 6 Four pair flushed from a long, narrow pond in a cut-over rice field. No two pair were closer than 50 yards & each other. In each case, the ♀ led & the ♂ followed. When I walked along the shore of this pond, I flushed 10 more pairs that took off singly as pairs, + 6 times I flushed groups of birds that numbered 6 or more birds to a group. Each of these groups consisted of exactly ½ ♂, ½ ♀. In addition, at the eastern end of the pond I flushed one flock of 25 birds, another flock of 30 birds. Both flocks contained both ♂ + ♀. This pond is in the S.E. section of section 19. Another pair was flushed from the main drainage ditch at the south end of the ranch.