bia and from the mountain lakes of our own Sierras 

 from Washington to Mexico. Here on the bays, estu- 

 aries and marshes of the coast and the lakes and ponds 

 of the valleys, throughout the whole length of theae 

 hunting grounds, countless millions of *hese bird?, have 

 found their winter feeding grounds for unnumbered 

 ages. No cold, no ice, no snow, no howling blizzards to 

 stop them in their search for food or disturb their mid- 

 day rest upon our quiet waters. In warmth they feed 

 upon the tender shoots of the young grasses that fringe 

 their watery haunts or bask in sunshine on the sandy 

 shores. 



It is the popular impression that all ducks breed in 

 the far north and migrate from thev^ south. One has 

 only to shoot on the lakes of Mexico to learn how er- 

 roneous this impression is, for one will meet varieties 

 quite common there that rarely if ever reach the south- 

 ern boundaries of the United States. 



The masked duck (Nomonyx dominicus) is a purely 

 southern species reaching Mexico only in its breeding 

 season. The three species of the Mexican tree duck, 

 quite common in that country, come but little into the 

 United States. One of these, the black-bellied tree duck 

 (Dendrosygna autumnalis) migrates to some little ex- 

 tent into Texas and to less extent into New Mexico and 

 Arizona. The fulvous tree duck (Dendrosygna fulva) 

 extends its migrations still farther north, breeding to 

 considerable extent in Arizona and southern California, 

 but rarely seen as far north as the center of the state. 

 The other species of the genus (Dendrosygna elegans), 

 for which I know no English name, is even rare as far 

 south as southern Jalisco. The cinnamon teal is a south- 

 ern duck, breeding in Arizona, Texas and southern 

 California but so rarely seen north of San Francisco 

 that a gentleman who had killed a straggler near Marys- 

 ville, when showing it to me, said that he couldn't find 

 a man in the town who could tell him what it was. 

 Yet the cinnamon teal is very common in Mexico and 

 Arizona and quite plentiful in southern California in 

 the spring, before the flocks break up and the birds 

 seek their nesting places. 



Northern bred ducks and purely northern species visit 

 us in great numbers during the winter months, and to 

 these must be added the vast number of these birds 

 that breed in the mountains throughout our hunting 

 grounds. 



The ornithologist divides the ducks into two sub- 

 families; the fresh-water ducks forming the subfamily, 

 57 



