LOCAL FLIGHTS, ETC. 99 
ot the day when the sun is warm and the water smooth. 
The merganser family, with the scoters, feed chiefly 
on fish, often rotten in the spring, which they find 
either on the surface or embedded in floating ice. 
Local ducks ‘have three distinct flights similar to 
migratory birds, but the third or last issue of the local 
ducks in the fall always occurs before the migratory 
birds come down from the North. This occurs from 
Minnesota through the states south. They can read- 
ily be distinguished, for the local birds have not at- 
tained their full plumage, whereas, the migratory birds 
have generally attained it ‘by the time they reach the 
Canadian line. 
