LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 109 



sportsman should no longer consider the thinned flock worthy of his notice. In this 

 manner, at the firsc arrival of the green- winged teal in the western country, I have seen 

 upwards of six dozen shot by a single gunner in the course of one day. 



And then, second, the pen of that keen sportsman, Dr. F. Henry 

 Yorke (1891), describes the departure of the late flight, in the 

 following words : 



The last issue of bluewings had collected, circled high in the air, and, following 

 their instinctive impulse, had traveled southward. The second issue of mallards had 

 come and gone, after staying with us a short time. The pintails, widgeons, green- 

 winged teal (first issue), redheads, canvasbacks, and bluebills had also departed, and 

 Grass Lake was almost "duckless." Even the mudhens had almost disappeared, 

 and only a few scattered individuals, or small flocks of belated widgeons or pintails 

 could be seen. Once in a wliilu a few mallards turned up, but they were old, wary 

 birds, "not to be caught with chaff." The only chance we could get was when a 

 " stranger " flock of mallards came in, drifting down from the last issue, just preceding 

 the frosts. 



A week like this about the end of October is not an unusual occurrence. The sun 

 shines warm after the cold nights, and the hazy atmosphere of our " Indian summer " 

 induces idleness to a very reprehensive degree. But there was nothing to do, and 

 we waited for a blast from old Boreas to awaken the ducks and put now life into 

 ourselves. 



Suddenly the herald of winter was heard. A fierce storm of rain or snow swept 

 down from the North, where the icy grip of winter already held the lakes, and all 

 nature was awake again. The laggard ducks came streaming in, mallards, pintails, 

 and widgeon. Bluebills rushed down the fly ways, and the game little green-winged 

 teal, whipping and pitching in all directions, made his second appearance. This 

 time the ducks meant business. While the weather was more uncertain, they came and 

 returned, loth to leave their happy nesting grounds in the far north; but now Jack 

 Frost was after them, and they were bent on a long and inevitable journey although 

 some of them dropping here and there, they would stay until they were absolutely 

 frozen out before they betook themselves to the mild clime and the open waterways 

 of the sunny South. 



Winter. — This hardy little duck winters as far north as British 

 Columbia and Montana in the west, in the central States of the 

 prairie region, in southern New England and even in Nova Scotia, 

 when it can find open water in the spring holes and the streams near 

 the coast. But its main winter home is in the great wild-fowl 

 resorts of the Southern States and Mexico, where it can find safe 

 retreats and abundant feeding grounds. It prefers the rice fields of 

 the interior and the inland sloughs and ponds, but it also visits the 

 coastal estuaries and the mouths of streams occasionally. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Northern North America practically across the 

 continent, but very sparingly in the cast. South to the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence (Magdalen Islands), southern Quebec (Monacougan), cas- 

 ually in western New York (Niagara River and Montezuma marshes), 

 rarely in southern Ontario (Toronto, Point au Pins, Oshawa, and 



