286 FEATHERED GAME 



that the little '^ flapper" will find it, for the 

 Black Duck at any age is a most skillful 

 skulker. 



Though by far the greater number have gone 

 on for summer quarters to Labrador and the 

 Hudson Bay country, the more remote lakes and 

 ponds of Maine are alive with these fine birds 

 during the breeding season. Scarcely a se- 

 cluded cove or hidden nook in their margins 

 but has its brood of '' waddling" youngsters, 

 happy in the plenty that leaves no want un- 

 filled. When the summer wanes and the young 

 birds have become strong enough to journey, 

 straggling ducks begin to make their appear- 

 ance in the salt marshes, then in small bunches, 

 a few at a time, as cold weather approaches 

 they gather at the sea into flocks ranging from 

 twenty to two hundred birds. Near my home 

 they gather winter after winter at the mouth of 

 a fresh water river in a body of, at times, as 

 many as five thousand birds, coming in at night 

 and spending their days on the salt water, ex- 

 cept in bad weather, when they huddle on the 

 ice at a safe distance from shore. From the 

 first of September such of their number as are 

 not inclined to brave the rigors of a New Eng^ 



