Duck-shooting 155 



resorting to the open water, feeding at a con- 

 siderable depth on small molluscs and shellfish. 



The male old-squaw, in his winter plumage of 

 black and white, with the white plumes of his 

 wing and long tail feathers, is a very handsome 

 bird. With spring this attire changes, and he 

 assumes a dark dress, so that when it comes time 

 for him to take leave, we scarce can recognize the 

 same bird. While these birds are good examples 

 of rugged New Englanders, we find them along 

 the shallow bays of Long Island and New Jersey, 

 even wintering in some numbers off the coasts of 

 our Southern states. On the Pacific Coast they 

 are found in Alaska during the summer, but do 

 not occur in large numbers farther south. The 

 bird is regularly met with on the Great Lakes, 

 and is a straggler on the larger rivers. Arctic 

 America is their breeding-ground, Greenland, 

 Hudson Bay, the shores of the Arctic sea, and 

 the Aleutian Islands. The shores and islands of 

 fresh-water lakes, a short distance inland, are 

 favorite sites. The nest is of grass, the duck lin- 

 ing it with down as incubation progresses, and 

 remaining the sole guardian of her brood. 



The writer saw, in the summer of 1886, a pair 

 of old-squaws with their young ducks off Little 

 Gull Island, in Long Island Sound. One of the 

 old birds was doubtless a cripple. At the first 

 approach of danger the brood would disappear, 



