WHITE-WIXGED SCOTEJi. 213 



pond or stream. The eggs, which are from five to eight 

 in number, are a Hght cream color. This Duck breeds, 

 in addition to the places already mentioned, in Labrador, 

 where Audubon found the nests and eggs and also cap- 

 tured some of the young, only a few days old. The nests 

 were placed in situations similar to those already de- 

 scribed, but were formed of twigs, mosses, and plants 

 matted together and without any down. He says the 

 eggs he saw were pale cream color, tinged with green. 

 Although the young he procured were only about a 

 week old, the males could already be distinguished from 

 the females by the white spot under the eye. The down 

 covering them was stiff and hairy, all black except the 

 chin, which was white. The birds were present in great 

 numbers and kept arriving all the time from the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. 



On the Atlantic coast, this Coot reaches the shores of 

 the New England States in September or beginning of 

 October, appearing in flocks of no very great size, the 

 old ones coming first. When migrating the birds fly 

 high, and they pursue their way in silence. If the 

 weather is stormy their course is low over the water, 

 rising and falling with the waves, now just topping some 

 combing billow, again hidden as they disappear in the 

 trough of the sea. Although their flesh is poor, tough, 

 and fishy, numbers of this Duck are shot by gunners 

 every season. They are exceedingly tenacious of life. 

 and are clothed in such a dense feathery covering that 

 it requires a gun heavily charged to bring them down; 

 and if only wounded they dive so quickly, and stay 

 under water so long, that it is next to impossible to 

 secure them. The feathers also, beside being strong 

 and thick, seem as if they were inserted through the 

 skin and clinched on the under side, and the labor of 



