Back in the eighties I remember seeing six barrels of these Ducks in Fulton Market, New York City, labeled "Young Canvasbacks"!
The last RUDDIES I saw alive (1908) were three in a creek of Hempstead Bay, Long Island.
They possess the same capacity as Grebes, of sinking slowly beneath the water, and they have almost as great difficulty as those birds in rising from the surface. They are far more at home on water than in the air, diving at the flash of a gun, in a diagonal slant, using their wings about two thirds extended as assistance to foot propulsion.
Like many undersized individuals, male Ruddies assume importance which verges on the comical. With spiked tail and head erect they swim pompously before the females, intimating plainly that there may be other ducks in the world but none like this fellow in front of you!
They are said to gorge themselves to a point where flying is impossible, and then fall beneath the blow of a stick!
North America. South in winter to Central America and West Indies.