Duck-shooting 1 79 



Measurements — Length, 20 inches; wing, 10.50 inches; culmen, 

 1.60 inches; tarsus, 1.70 inches. 



Yoiaig male — Similar to female. 



Downy young — Upper parts, flanks, and ring on neck, dusky; 

 lower parts, white. 



Eggs — Six to seventeen in number, of a pale cream color, and 

 measure 2.70 by 1.90 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from Labrador, probably Newfoundland and 

 Quebec, North Dakota, Assiniboia, Alberta, and British Colum- 

 bia, north to Fort Anderson, Point Barrow, Kotzebue Sound, 

 and St. Michael, Alaska. Winters from Nova Scotia and Quebec, 

 south rarely to Florida ; in the interior rather rarely in migra- 

 tions or winter, to western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, 

 Colorado, Wyoming, and Louisiana ; winters also on Bering 

 Island and the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to San 

 Quentin Bay, Lower California. Occurs also in summer in 

 northeastern Siberia, wintering in Japan and China. Birds of 

 this species, probably barren, occur in America in summer as 

 far south as Rhode Island, and Monterey, California. 



The most abundant and well known of all our 

 sea-ducks, frequenting both coasts and also com- 

 mon on the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michi- 

 gan. The first small flocks of white-winged 

 scoters appear off New England in early Sep- 

 tember, and by the first week in October they 

 are present in large numbers. Long Island 

 Sound is a favorite resort, and in the fall we 

 see countless numbers of them congregated in 

 the open water offshore, diving a considerable 

 depth for the small coot clams and shellfish 

 which constitute their food, preferring the deeper 

 water of the sound to the shallow bays. The 



