192 WATER FOW\L. 



attention to it, save when no other Wild Fowl can be 

 procured. 



Perhaps, when, from continuous and ruthless slaugh- 

 ter, beginning with the destruction of the eggs in the far 

 north, and the persecution of the birds throughout their 

 long journeys to the southland and back to their breed- 

 ing places, the majority of our Ducks have been annihi- 

 lated, and the now despised Mud Hen or Blue Peter 

 (Fulica americana) has become the game water bird of our 

 successors, then the Old Squaw, in its descendants, may 

 rise to the first rank of desirable Ducks, and be the 

 choicest and most eagerly sought species of Water Fowl 

 in the opinion of future sportsmen. But when that day 

 comes, as undoubtedly it surely will, and the majority of 

 our magnificent Water Fowl has become extinct, one 

 dreads to think of the lonehness and stillness of our 

 marshes, lakes, and tidal waters, which, once resounding 

 in spring and autumn, aye and in many places through- 

 out the winter, with the glad cries and cheerful calls of 

 countless busy feathered creatures, will then lie tenant- 

 less and deserted, never more to echo with the voices of 

 Nature's happy children, stilled forever. 



* HA VELD A G LAC I A LIS. 



Geographical Distyibutioti. — Northern Hemisphere. In North 

 America from Arctic Ocean to Florida, Texas, and California, 

 rare though in these States. In the Old World from Great 

 Britain to Japan and China, occasionally in winter going to the 

 Mediterranean. Breeds in Arctic regions. 



Adult Male in Sufumer. — Lores, fore part of cheeks, and sides 

 of forehead, mouse gray. Aline above the gray from forehead 

 passing over the eye and joining one from beneath the eye and 

 extending to above ear coverts, white. Rest of head, neck, and 

 upper parts, sooty black; the feathers on upper part of back 



* See Appendix, page 290. 



