AMONG THE WATER FowL 
den, in the suburbs of Boston, and spent the night 
under the currant bushes! We did not know of 
it at the time, and our big dog kept some would-be 
pot-hunters ‘at bay, so the Geese escaped: 
With the three Mergansers, especially the Hooded 
and the Goosander, the little Bufle-head, the Amer- 
ican Golden-eye, and the rare Barrows’ Golden-eye, 
the list is possibly exhausted of the Ducks that come 
into the New England lakes and ponds. But the 
seacoast is full of interest and wonders in that direc- 
tion. South of Maine the Harlequin Duck and the 
King Eider are so rare as to hardly enter into this 
account, though I have personally known of their 
capture on the Massachusetts coast. One of the 
fine coastwise sights is the spring flight of the 
Eiders. During the early days of April, a mulegor 
two off the Chatham bars, I have seen long lines 
of them, coming all the time, pass by on their way 
north, Each flock 1s led by a malej—a ‘staking 
creature with his white back, black under- parts, 
and greenish head. ‘The brown females alternate 
with the males more or less irregularly, and the 
string of the large, swiftly moving fowl, fifty to a 
hundred or more in number, is an impressive sight. 
If the wind happens to come on strong from the 
southeast during this period, they often fly well in 
around Monomoy Point, and are shot from the 
beach by ‘men’ concealed in pits) WT havedorten 
seen the flocks, hungry on their travels, turn into 
Chatham bay and feed on the mussel-flats. 
There, also, the Brant Geese” resort dane 
218 
