14 NORTH AMERICAN DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 



breeding grounds late in August, but that active migration does not 

 occur until September. A shooting season in northern New England 

 or the northern portion of the Mississippi Valley that began Septem- 

 ber 1 would satisfy the demands of conservative sportsmen of these 

 sections. In the southern United States, however, this date would 

 anticipate by a full month the time when enough ducks arrive to make 

 hunting worth while, and at Currituck Sound, North Carolina, shoot- 

 ing does not begin until November. 



In the northern half of the United States the great body of ducks 

 and geese depart with the advent of freezing weather, and but few 

 linerer after earlv November. On the other hand, south of the Ohio 

 River and Chesapeake Bay the ducks and geese remain all winter, and, 

 unless protected, will be harassed throughout the entire cold season. 

 The greatest slaughter of ducks now occurs in the section named, 

 especially in the Mississippi Valle}^ from southern Missouri southward, 

 and here more stringent laws are needed. It is claimed above that 

 the shooting season should be confined to the period of migration, and 

 if this is true then it follows that fall shooting should cease as soon 

 as, or soon after, fall migration has ceased. Regular migration has 

 closed by the first of December, and though the birds are constantly 

 shifting their position all through the winter as the weather changes, 

 these movements can hardly be called migration. 



MIGRATION. 



Ducks, geese, and swans are migratory. While many breed under 

 the torrid sun of the Tropics, others migrate to the most distant parts 

 of the world for the purpose of nesting. As far into the frozen north 

 as land extends geese sunnner and successfully rear their young. 



A few species are nonmigratory, and individuals of other species, as 

 the ruddy duck, remain through the year near the nesting grounds; 

 but most of the ducks and geese are strictly migratory and some per- 

 form extensive journej^s. The brant of northern Greenland, for 

 instance, probably spend the winter along the South Atlantic coast of 

 the United States. Some of the blue-winged teal that nest in southern 

 Canada desert North America in fall and cross the equator to spend 

 the winter in central South America. Some of the pintail ducks of 

 Alaska and northeastern Asia cross the equator to the islands of the 

 South Pacitic, 4,000 miles from their breeding grounds. 



Most waterfowl, in migrating, follow the same route both in spring 

 and fall. The ducks that migrate north along the Mississippi River 

 in spring probably are the same individuals that traversed this route 

 the previous autumn. Among the geese there is a smgle exception to 

 this rule. The common eastern brant {Branta hernicla glaucogastra) 

 in spring passes north along the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Saint 



