AMONG THE WATER FOWL 



den, in the suburbs of Boston, and spent the night 

 under the currant bushes! We did not know of 

 it at the time, and our big dog kept some would-be 

 pot-hunters at bay, so the Geese escaped. 



With the three Mergansers, especially the Hooded 

 and the Goosander, the little Buffle-head, the Amer- 

 ican Golden-eye, and the rare Barrows' Golden-eye, 

 the list is possibly exhausted of the Ducks that come 

 into the New England lakes and ponds. But the 

 seacoast is full of interest and wonders in that direc- 

 tion. South of Maine the Harlequin Duck and the 

 King Eider are so rare as to hardly enter into this 

 account, though I have personally known of their 

 capture on the Massachusetts coast. One of the 

 fine coastwise sights is the spring flight of the 

 Eiders. During the early days of April, a mile or 

 two off the Chatham bars, I have seen long lines 

 of them, coming all the time, pass by on their way 

 north. Each flock is led by a male, a striking 

 creature with his white back, black under -parts, 

 and greenish head. The brown females alternate 

 with the males more or less irregularly, and the 

 string of the large, swiftly moving fowl, fifty to a 

 hundred or more in number, is an impressive sight. 

 If the wind happens to come on strong from the 

 southeast during this period, they often fly well in 

 around Monomoy Point, and are shot from the 

 beach by men concealed in pits. I have often 

 seen the flocks, hungry on their travels, turn into 

 Chatham bay and feed on the mussel-flats. 



There, also, the Brant Geese resort in large 



218 



