CHAPTER XX VIL 
NORTHERN FLIGHT SOUTH OF THE FROST LINE. 
The Christmas festivities are over, the last firework 
has been exploded, the holly’s prickly leaf and scarlet 
berry remain; and the often half-suppressed exclama- 
tions heard in the old halls are suggestive of that 
Druidical relic, the dear old mistletoe. The balls, 
routes and parties have passed, everybody feels most 
jolly tired and half glad it is over. The yellow-leg 
mallards, pintails and greenwinged teals through Flor- 
ida and the adjoining states are getting uneasy, and 
gather together for their migratory flight and travel 
northward toward the frost line. Now “Ducks are 
coming North,” stopping at their old feeding grounds, 
staying for a shorter or longer period, as the winter 
north of them is open or severe. 
The canvas-backs, redheads and mergansers (ex- 
cept the hooded variety), of the divers, feel the same 
instinctive pang and travel coastwise through the 
tributaries of the large rivers, and over lakes and 
sloughs. ‘hese form the van of the cold-weather 
birds, are always restive, and show an anxious pro- 
pensity to be “always on the wing.” 
The bluebills, ringbills, ruddy, old squaws, golden- 
eyes and scoters follow; gradually drawing nearer and 
drifting up to follow in the rear of the above. 
The woodducks, redleg mallards and black ducks 
are approaching, waiting until the ice under the heavy 
rains and warm, genial suns shall have entirely melted 
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