, pee 
AT THE WATER’S EDGE 


meg O look for water fowl in mid-winter, 
Ai]| in this latitude, is quite likely to be 
# a veritable wild-goose chase, not- 
: withstanding the fact that several 
species regularly appear in our neighborhood 
at that season. All the coast of New Jersey, 
Long Island, and New England is a resort of 
all species that find the winter climate of the 
Northern States congenial. But having, at 
this season, no local attachments and home 
ties, as in the breeding period, they are con- 
tinually roaming hither and thither along the 
edge of the sea, apparently governed by no 
impulse save to find their requisite daily food. 
Even in the case of the land birds, which are 
certainly less flighty than their aquatic neigh- 
bors, it is quite a matter of chance whether in 
winter they will be found in a given region at 
a particular time. Much more then must the 
naturalist be prepared to have his researches 
crowned with disappointment, when he at- 
155 
