•2IO Mackay <?» Somateria dresser/'. [October 



March iS, 1875, on a return trip from the island of Muskeget 

 where I had been after these Ducks, I saw and started from the 

 water adjacent to Eel Point on Nantucket Island a body of these 

 Ducks which I computed contained twelve thousand, and near 

 them was a flock of Scoters and Velvet Ducks which I estimated 

 contained twenty-five thousand. The first portion of the flock — and 

 they all followed each other in their flight — extended as far as the 

 eye could discern towards Great Point on the same island, the 

 distance being eleven miles from where I was. It was the largest 

 body of wild fowl I ever saw. 



The American Eiders remain in these waters until the latter 

 part of April, when they depart for the North. Before starting 

 they frequent the sand bars and shoals which are out of water, 

 on which they like to crawl up and sit, and where also they 

 obtain gravel, — to serve as ballast, according to the local gunners. 

 At this time they are more easily decoyed than at any other, 

 coming to bunches of seaweed rolled up and placed on the 

 beach near the water, which seem to answer very well the pur- 

 pose of decoys, also to the dead birds placed on the shore as soon 

 as they are shot. They can also be waved in from quite a 

 distance when flying along the shore outside, by shaking a black 

 cloth or gun case at intervals, by which means thev are frequent- 

 ly brought within shooting range. When flying along the shore 

 they seem to avoid passing over sand spits where the sea is break- 

 ing sufficiently to make white water, preferring to go to either side 

 of them. Neither will they come on shore to crawl up where there 

 is ice or snow, that is when the shore has been bare previous to a 

 snowstorm. 



It frequently happens that the scallops in these waters change 

 their location by swimming to other places, and oftentimes the 

 beds of sea-clams become covered up with a layer of sand through 

 the agency of storms, but the Eiders discover the new place, or 

 other beds, with surprising intelligence, so quickly as to cause 

 them apparently little inconvenience. 



In these waters the American Eider is known by the name of 

 'Shoal Duck.' In Rhode Island and Shelter Island waters they 

 are called 'VVamps.' To the north of Cape Cod they are known 

 by the name of 'Sea Ducks.' 



In closing I would mention as one instance of how alive they 

 are to the presence of their favorite food, the black mussel, that 



