LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAiST WILD FOWL 127 



harmless pieces of ice wiieu tlie gunner, clad in his white suit, is working his 

 cautious way along toward the feeding flocks. The deception is so complete 

 that I have known that crafty old pirate, the crow, to almo;<t alight on the 

 nose of a float when it was being pushed after a flock of sea fowl. This float 

 gunning is th.e method most used for all duck and goose shooting on the 

 eastern New England coast line. 



Winter. — There is not a month in the year during which scoters 

 may not be seen on the Massachusetts coast; straggling birds, 

 crippled, sick, or nonbreecling birds are present more or less all 

 summer; the heavy migration flights last all through the fall and 

 during much of the spring; and in winter this is one of the main 

 resorts of all three species. The waters lying south of Cape Cod 

 and in the vicinity of Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard are particu- 

 larly congenial to these birds in winter, where the numerous islands, 

 bays, and reefs offer some shelter from the winter storms, where 

 they are not much disturbed by gunners at that season, and where 

 tliey can find extensive beds of mussels, scallops, clams, and c|uahogs 

 within easy reach on the numerous shoals and ledges. Here they 

 congregate in enormous numbers, the three species associated to- 

 gether and often with eiders and oldsquaws. They have their 

 favorite feeding grounds, to which they resort regularly every day 

 at da3'break, feeding, playing, and resting during the day and flying 

 out again at night to sleep on the bosom of the ocean, or on some 

 more sheltered portion of the sound, far enough from land to feel 

 secure. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Northern North America and northeastern 

 Asia. East to the coast of Labrador (north of the Straits of 

 Belle-Isle) and Newfoundland (Grand Lake). South nearly or 

 quite to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to James Bay, to an unknown 

 distance in the interior of Canada and Alaska and to the base of 

 the Alaska Peninsula (Lake Clark). On the Aleutian and Kurile 

 Islands. West to the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and to north- 

 eastern Siberia (Gichiga). North to northern Alaska (Kowak 

 River), northern Canada (Mackenzie Bay) and probably north in 

 the Labrador Peninsula to Ungava Bay and perhaps Hudson Straits. 



Winter range. — Mainly on the seacoast. On the Atlantic coast regu- 

 larly south to Long Island Sound and New Jersey, rarely to South 

 Caiolina, and occasionally to Florida. North regularly to Maine 

 and more rarely to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland. 

 On the Pacific coast from the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands south 

 to southern California (Santa Barbara Islands) and from the Com- 

 mander Islands south to Japan and China. In the interior it 

 v.) liters on the Great Lakes more or less regularly and has occurred 



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