PIP. WARM-WEATHER BIRDS. 
whipping about without the regularity which had hith- 
erto been customary upon their feeding, playing and 
roosting grounds. On the day of their departure, after 
feeding, they will flock to some large common play- 
ground; where, instead of quietly resting, as usual, 
they assume a stage of activity. About three in the 
afternoon, instead of drifting back to their feeding 
grounds as usual in little flocks, singles and pairs, they 
form flocks and sweep up and around the open water 
and alight again. The flocks soon increase in size 
and after two or three circles around the open water, 
each time rising higher and higher, they proceed 
south in well defined and distinct flocks, each under 
a leader, and soon vanish in the distance, never return- 
ing that fall. Three or four days of no shooting oc- 
curs, except upon those which were too weak and in- 
capacitated for a long flight, before the second issue 
arrives, which stays a few days. A cold snap brings 
down the third, the weather determining the length 
of their stay. The second and third depart at night 
or late in the evening, but evince no disposition to as- 
semble as the first. They are the second of our warm- 
weather birds to leave, closely following the wood- 
ducks. 
Their feeding grounds are in down rice, inshore on 
duck and pond weed, frogbits, etc., sloughs, mus- 
quaids and wide shallow flats. Their roosting grounds 
are in grassy places where-water holes are to be 
found, in down rice and flags. Their playgrounds are 
in open water where rushes, lily and lotus abound, in 
holes surrounded by rice and flags, and in the buck- 
brush lined shores skirted by timber. 
