SEASONx^L FLIGHT OF DUCKS i8i 



Though ducks fly often by day, they also migrate 

 by night if conditions require it; northern flights 

 late in autumn frequently come in during the night, 

 though I have seen birds arrive from the north by 

 thousands late in afternoon, when they came swing- 

 ing down in long straggling flocks, 80 to 100 yards 

 above the earth, and passed on to the south without 

 a glance at the decoys set in front of my shooting 

 blind. These birds had evidently come a consider- 

 able distance, and were on their way to points still 

 more remote. Dr. J. C. Phillips has noted that the 

 ruddy duck flies invariably by night, and says that 

 he has seen them coming in to resting grounds at 

 the first sign of dawn. This habit, however, is con- 

 fined so far as I am aware to this species alone among 

 our North American ducks. Southward flight of 

 such species as scoters, which are largely frequenters 

 of salt water, is mainly by day, and is easily observed, 

 as during the time of flight the birds pass steadily. 



In the northern hemisphere a few ducks nest in 

 the marshes of middle latitudes, but by far the 

 greater number breed in the sloughs and ponds 

 of northern areas. Most species of ducks are hardy 

 and do not flee from cold so long as food is available. 

 Their movements, therefore, are governed largely 

 by the presence of food and by search for areas 

 where they may hope to escape from their greatest 

 enemy, man. Though widely scattered for the 



