BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



The next order of water birds includes the ducks, geese and 

 swans, birds which are amply represented both on the salt- 

 water bays of the coast and the inland lakes, rivers and 

 marshes. Although there are some twenty species of ducks, 

 representing a number of genera, found in California, only one 

 of them, the cinnamon teal, is peculiar to this coast, all the 

 others being distributed over the entire North American con- 

 tinent, or at least over its northern portions. The mergansers 

 are farthest removed from the typical duck, having a much 

 narrower and sharper beak. They are fish eaters, and conse- 

 quently are not palatable, most people preferring their fish diet 

 at first hand. The wood-duck is the most beautiful of the 

 group in coloration, with its shimmering dress of purple, green, 

 chestnut and white. Its breeding habits are of unusual interest, 

 for whereas most ducks make their nests on the ground in 

 marshland, the wood-duck repairs to a hollow tree beside some 

 stream to rear her brood. 



I need only mention, in passing, some of the more common 

 species known to every housewife and sportsman — the redhead 

 and the canvasback, the blue- and green- winged teal, the 

 shoveller, the pintail and the butterball. Then there are the 

 goldeneyes, the scaup ducks and the scoters, these last being 

 sea-ducks, which are seldom eaten. They feed largely on 

 mussels, swallowing them whole. It is a mystery how they 

 escape death from indigestion. 



During the migrating season flocks of geese, flying in char- 

 acteristic wedge-shape lines, are familiar sights, and the far- 

 away, incessant calls of the birds may be heard late into the 

 night. Several species are represented here, and also the 

 whistling swans, which, however, are less abundant than geese. 



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