COLD AND WARM WEATHER BIRDS. 15 
northward. An absence of pintails, for three or four 
days, generally follows before the third issue puts in 
an appearance, which stay a week or ten days, accord- 
ing to the weather, then travel northward, breeding 
chiefly south of the Canadian line. 
In the fall migration they differ from other cold 
weather birds of the non-divers in returning south 
before the cold weather sets in; in fact, the first frost 
finds those which bred in the United States rapidly 
wending their way toward the frost line. The first 
issue to come down in the fall usually leaves the north- 
ern part of Minnesota and North Dakota about the 
end of August. They associate a good deal with the 
bald-pates and gadwalls, using the same feeding, roost- 
ing and playgrounds in the fail, not associating with 
them in the spring owing to their having gone north 
several weeks before them and feeding to a large ex- 
tent upon grain and corn fields. The second fall issue 
generally overtakes the first before they reach the frost 
line. They collect in some quiet piece of water, 
migrate at night and never return that fall. They do 
not assume their full plumage north of the frost line. 
The feeding grounds in the spring are in corn, wheat 
and barley fields, sloughs, wild rice, barley and rye, 
edges of lakes and on river bottoms. In the fall they 
feed more on seeds and down rice, in shallow water 
in the south and middle states, but in the grain fields 
and musquaids north. Their playgrounds are in open 
places of water, where lilies and lotus or wild rice 
abound. Their roosting grounds are in bays or 
inlets of lakes, rivers, etc., and sloughs surrounded by 
weeds and grasses where they feed at night. The 
