American Game 265 



occasionally found late in the season along the shores of 

 the lake. Sandpiper breed abundantly. Canada geese 

 arrive at the lake in April, on their way to their north- 

 ern breeding-grounds, which are among the shallow 

 lakes north of the " great divide," where the waters flow 

 northward and into the Hudson bay and Arctic ocean. 

 They stop in Vermont on their southward migration, 

 about October I, and remain until the hard frost comes, 

 staying afternoons and nights out on the broad waters 

 of the lake, and feeding during the early part of the day 

 in the stubble-fields. Their numbers are yearly decreas- 

 ing. Brant, of late years, are seldom seen. An occa- 

 sional flock comes, but makes a short stay. Black duck 

 breed in considerable numbers in the Missisquoi 

 marshes, and also in other sections of Lake Champlain, 

 and in a few of the most secluded ponds and creeks in 

 the interior of the state. They would undoubtedly 

 breed here in far greater numbers if they were not 

 driven away in the spring by muskrat-trappers and 

 pickerel-shooters. During the past two years there has 

 been a marked increase in the number of native-bred 

 duck, and no perceptible decrease in the migratory 

 flight, which begins to arrive the last of September, or 

 soon after the first cold storm in September. Mallard 

 are occasionally found with their dusky brethren, the 

 black duck. Wood-duck formerly bred abundantly 

 in Vermont, but the wood-choppers have cut down most 

 of their nesting-places. This has caused the majority 

 of these duck to go to the great northern wilds to find 

 suitable breeding-places. The few wood-duck that are 

 natives leave for the south early in September. The 

 flight-duck arrive soon afterward, and after a short stay 



