222 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



often erratic with frequent unexpected twists and turns, which make 

 it a difficult bird for the sportsman to hit; but it often flies in large 

 flocks, closely bunched, or with a broad front of many birds abreast, 

 which gives the gunner an opportunity for an effective raking shot. 

 When much disturbed by shooting these ducks fly about from one 

 lake to another high in the air twisting and turning in a most erratic 

 manner and finally darting down almost vertically, making the air 

 whistle with their wings. Audubon (1840) says: 



When these birds are traveling, their flight is steady, rather laborious, but greatly 

 protracted. The whistling of their wings is heard at a considerable distance when 

 they are passing over head. At this time they usually move in a broad front, some- 

 timee in a continuous line. When disturbed, they fly straight forward for a while, 

 with less velocity than when traveling, and, if within proper distance, are easily 

 Bhot. At times their notes are shrill, but at others hoarse and guttural. They are, 

 however, rarely heard during the day, and indeed like many other species, these 

 birds are partly nocturnal. 



Fall. — The fall migration starts rather late with this species, as it 

 is one of the last to leave its northern breeding grounds, and it pro- 

 ceeds southward in a leisurely manner in advance of the frost line. 

 The migration route is practically a reversal of the route traversed 

 in the spring, mainly in the interior, over the sloughs, marshs, lakes, 

 and rivers most frequented by gunners. Constant persecution by 

 sportsmen keeps these httle ducks on the move and they have little 

 time to rest and feed, except at night on the larger lakes. They 

 decoy readily and many are shot over live or wooden decoys from 

 blinds made in the rushes near their feeding grounds; they are killed 

 by ambushed gunners on their fly ways between the marshes and the 

 lakes where they roost; and they are hunted out of the cover where 

 they feed in the sloughs of the North and the rice fields of the South. 

 They are safe only in the center of some large body of water. 



Mr. Todd (1904) quotes another interesting note from Mr. Bacon, 

 describing the departure of these ducks from Lake Erie as follows : 



On one occasion I saw, as I believed, all the lesser scaups in this neighborhood 

 start for the south. The bay had frozen over a few nights before, and on this particu- 

 lar afternoon a large flock of these ducks kept circling over the lake, sometimes high 

 in the air, again dropping swiftly to the surface and skimming along for a mile or so. 

 Finally having evidently gathered into one flock all the birds of the Adcinity, they 

 rose to a great height and, starting southward, were soon lost to view. 



Winter. — They are very abundant all winter throughout the south- 

 ern half of the United States, where they find some safe havens of 

 rest. Large numbers winter on the Indian River in Florida and on 

 the lakes in the interior of that State; on Lake Worth they are very 

 abundant and so tame that they have learned to feed almost out of 

 the hands of the winter tourists. On the Louisiana coast they are 

 the commonest ducks and they soon learn to appreciate the security 

 which they find on the protected reservations. It must be a relief 



