River and Pond Ducks 



Season More common in the autumn migrations, August, Sep- 

 tember, and October, along the Atlantic coast states than in 

 the spring, and always more plentiful in the Mississippi 

 region than near salt water. 



Similar in most of its habits to the green-winged teal, the 

 blue-winged species appears a trifle less hardy, and is there- 

 fore, perhaps, the very first duck to come into the United States 

 in the early autumn and to hurry southward when the first frost 

 pinches. Tropical winters suit it perfectly, but many birds re- 

 main in our southern states until spring. Here they forget family 

 traditions of shyness, when the sun shines brightly, and sit 

 crowded together basking in its rays on the mud flats and shal- 

 low lagoons, delighting in the tropical warmth. It is when they 

 are enjoying such a sun bath that the pot hunter, who has stolen 

 silently upon them, discharges an ounce of shot in their midst, and 

 bags more ducks at a time than one who knows how scarce this 

 fine game bird is, where once it was exceedingly abundant, cares 

 to contemplate. The old "figure four" traps, to which ducks are 

 decoyed with rice, still find favor with the market hunter, who 

 is looking for large returns for his efforts, rather than for sport. 

 Decoys are all but useless in autumn when the drakes show no 

 attention to even their mates. 



Formerly these teals were very common indeed in New Eng- 

 land, the middle Atlantic and the middle states, whereas for many 

 seasons past the same old story is heard there from the sports- 

 men: "There is a very poor flight this year." It is likely to 

 grow poorer and poorer in future unless the ducks are given 

 better protection. We must now go to the inaccessible sloughs, 

 grown with wild rice, in Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and west- 

 ward, or to the lagoons of the lower Mississippi Valley to find the 

 two commoner species of teals in abundance. In such luxuriant 

 feeding-grounds, where they associate closely, long, wedge- 

 shaped strings of ducks rise from the sedges at any slight alarm, 

 and shoot through the air overhead on whistling wings. We 

 are accustomed to seeing small, densely massed flocks in the east 

 when the birds are migrating southward. The blue-winged 

 teals, after their small size is noted, can always be distinguished 

 by the white crescent between the bill and eyes, conspicuous at 

 a good distance. "When they alight, they drop down suddenly 

 among the reeds in the manner of the snipe or woodcock," says 



1 06 



