Midgets of the Duck world but swiftest awing. I have seen a flock of these aerial rockets overtake a bunch of Redheads and easily pass them. On western prairies they have been timed between telefone stations at eighty miles per hour! This speed is surpassed when flying before a gale. They decoy readily and their ability awing, combined with tendency to "fan" when danger is detected, would save many if sympathy for fallen comrades did not lure them back to fatal spots.
Pearson's account of nine GREENWINGS — seven under water, two above — which sprang simultaneously aloft at a sudden motion, illustrates the radio communication existing among birds..
Well concealed in an old Snipe blind on Shinnecock Bay (Long Island) I watched a small flock spiraling and circling in great curves, passing close above. Their wings made a high pitched whistle — shriller even than the Goldeneyes' air cleavage. They turned together at the same instant exactly like a flock of Snipe.
They are tamed easily and Herbert Job has raised youngsters successfully in captivity.
North America. Wintering rarely as far north as Massachusetts.