120 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mr. Dwight W. Huntington (1903) pays the following tribute to 

 their speed : 



After some days' shooting at the sharp-tailed grouse, I went one day to a famous 

 duck pass in North Dakota, when the teal were flying from the Devils Lake to a 

 smaller one to breakfast. As soon as I had made my blind, they began to come 

 singly and in pairs, sometimes three or four together or a small flock, and although 

 they came in quick succession and the shooting was fast enough to heat the gun, I 

 believe it was an hour or more before I killed a bird. I was almost in despair, when 

 I fired at a passing flock, holding the gun a yard or more before the leading birds, 

 and at the report a single teal, some distance behind the others, fell dead upon the 

 beach. I at once began shooting long distances ahead of the passing ducks, and before 

 long I had a large bag of birds. 



A few days afterwards an officer from the garrison near by, a good shot in the upland 

 fields and woods, went with me to my duck pass to shoot at teal. We made our blinds 

 some two gun shots apart and soon began to shoot. The birds came rapidly as before, 

 and my friend gave them two barrels as they passed , but was entirely out of ammunition 

 before he killed a bird. His orderly came to my blind for shells, and with them I 

 sent a message to shoot three times as far ahead as he had been doing, and be was 

 soon killing birds. 



Winter. — They are still abundant in some parts of the South, where 

 they make their winter home in the great rice fields and extensive 

 marshes, feeding on the ripened grains that fall upon the water, feast- 

 ing and growing fat. Here they are safe enough as long as they 

 paddle about and remain hidden in the innermost recesses of the rice 

 fields and inaccessible swampy pools; but the sportsmen soon learn 

 their haunts and habits, build their blinds near their favorite feeding 

 grounds or fly ways and shoot them as they fly about in search of 

 food and shelter. Constant persecution has thus materially reduced 

 their numbers, but since such extensive sanctuaries have been estab- 

 lished in Louisiana, it is to be hoped that they will have a safe haven 

 of rest, in the fall at least; this may also result in larger numbers 

 sojourning there for the winter, rather than passing on farther south, 

 as the majority of this species now does. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Mainly central North America, more rarely toward 

 the east and west coasts. East rarely or casually to Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence (Magdalen Islands) and New Brunswick (St. John County). 

 South casually to southeastern Maine (Washington County), southern 

 Rhode Island (Sakonnet), and southern West Virginia (Brooke 

 County); more recently to northern Ohio (Ottawa and Sandusky 

 Counties), southwestern Indiana (Gibson County), southern Illinois 

 (Union County), central Missouri (Missouri River valley), central 

 Kansas (Emporia and Wichita) , northern New Mexico (Lake Burford) , 

 central Utah (Fairfield), and northern Nevada (Truckee valley and 

 Washoe Lake). West only to the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Moun- 

 tains. North to central British Columbia (Lac la Hache and Cariboo), 



