SEA FOWL IN NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 147 
vith lake or orange bill, and scarlet leg gleaming from the velvet 
darkness of their suits, play this game so stoutly that among the 
hardy fishermen they have gained the name of courting coots. 
Thus it appears that pairing takes place long before the instinct 
of migration moves the whole mass northwards. This migration 
is strongest during April, and lasts into the middle of May. 
Beginning far away southward and west, Florida perchance, it 
strikes our westernmost point, Westport, Brier Island, passes: 
along Yarmouth, Shelburne, Lunenburg, strikes Sambro, the 
western head of Halifax harboar, and pours its tide all along the 
eastern passages, Canseau, and finally leaves our shores at the 
north-eastern cape of Cape Breton. For all day long and for 
many days in fine weather, flock after flock of heralds, scoters, 
and eider ducks, every few minutes come scattering along, flying 
low upon the ocean, but rising when passing a rocky point. 
From many a rocky ledge, or boat anchored to a buoy, comes 
flash after flash, followed by the roar of a duck gun, and three 
or four victims falling headlong into the sea. The heralds and 
elders seem to perform their flight first, followed by the yellow 
billed scoters and the velvet ducks, called May whitewing, be- 
cause they prolonged their migration until May. Thus, as I 
have said before, these flights are obvious and make a pretty 
scene in the landscape, whilst the geese, flying high in the air, 
escape our notice, and the true ducks and their allies disappear 
as it were unnoticed, but no doubt performing the like migra- 
tions on inland routes and fresh water streams. Some fifty 
years ago, it was my delight as a boy to watch this feathery 
stream as it flowed by the headlands of Newport, R. I. A re- 
spectable and grave set of men called gunners locally, but termed 
fowlers in law, and having common rights under the “Fowlers 
and Fishers’ Act,” pursued this sport with great ardour. They 
had unwritten but severely respected law, of every boat’s exact 
position on the water, and every man’s right of fire on land. 
They owned a weather stained old grey granite hut called the 
fish house, with its boats chained all round it, and further away 
towards the sea, a stone duck fort, a circular wall of dry stone, 
titanic, and looking so like what I have in after years seen the 
