The white-winged scoter, which also breeds in the interior of the 

 continent from northern North Dakota north to the Arctic coast, was 

 at one time credited with an eUiptical migration route, at least insofar 

 as those wintering on the Atlantic coast are concerned. This sea duck 

 nests only near fresh water but spends the winters on the ocean along 

 both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. It migrates 

 over land surfaces mainly at night and it is now believed that after 

 working northward to the waters of Long Island Sound it starts up 

 the valleys of the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers and flies overland 

 to the Great Lakes, from which region it continues west and north- 

 west to the breeding grounds, returning to its winter quarters over 

 the same route. Early ideas alleging an elliptical route probably arose 

 from the fact that great numbers of first-year nonbreeding birds regu- 

 larly pass up the New England coast, cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 and spend the summer loafing off the coast of Labrador. In the fall 

 these birds form into large flocks and retrace their flight, chiefly during 

 daylight hours, to winter quarters from southeastern Maine south at 

 least to Chesapeake Bay. As it was not known that the white-winged 

 scoter does not usually breed until it is 2 years old, and since the south- 

 ward movement of yearling birds was conspicuous while the travels of 

 those from the nesting grounds were chiefly at night, the theory was 

 advanced that the latter flew 1,500 miles due east from the region west 

 of Hudson Bay to the coast of Labrador, thence southward to the known 

 winter quarters. 



A study of the Canada geese that winter abundantly in the waters 

 of Back Bay, Va., and Currituck Sound, N. C, reveals another im- 

 portant tributary to the Atlantic coast route. Banding has shown 

 that the principal breeding grounds of these birds are among the islands 

 and on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. From this region they move 

 south in autumn to the point of Lower Ontario between Lakes Erie 

 and Huron. Occasionally one of these geese will be recovered in the 

 Mississippi Valley but the great majority are retaken either on their 

 breeding grounds or on the Atlantic coast south of Delaware Bay, 

 showing another instance of a long cross-country flight by waterfowl. 

 Although the Canada goose is abundant in migration on the coast of 

 New England, the birds taken there rarely include any of those banded 

 in southern Ontario. The northeastern population of these geese 

 comes from breeding areas in New England, the Maritime Provinces 

 of Canada, Newfoundland, and the desolate coast of Labrador, their 



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