30 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



edge of the ice, and others swimming close by. They 

 evidently love to stand on the ice for a change. 



March 30, 1858. Landing at Bittern Cliff, I went 

 round through the woods to get sight of ducks on the 

 pond. Creeping down through the woods, I reached the 

 rocks, and saw fifteen or twenty sheldrakes scattered 

 about. The full-plumaged males, conspicuously black 

 and white and often swimming in pairs, appeared to be 

 the most wary, keeping furthest out. Others, with much 

 less white and duller black, were very busily fishing 

 just north the inlet of the pond, where there is about 

 three feet of water, and others still playing and preen- 

 ing themselves. These ducks, whose tame representa- 

 tives are so sluggish and deliberate in their motions, 

 were full of activity. A party of these ducks fishing 

 and playing is a very lively scene. On one side, for in- 

 stance, you will see a party of eight or ten busily diving 

 and most of the time under water, not rising high when 

 they come up, and soon plunging again. The whole sur- 

 face will be in commotion there, though no ducks may 

 be seen. I saw one come up with a large fish, where- 

 upon all the rest, as they successively came to the sur- 

 face, gave chase to it, while it held its prey over the 

 water in its bill, and they pursued with a great rush 

 and clatter a dozen or more rods over the surface, mak- 

 ing a great furrow in the water, but, there being some 

 trees in the way, I could not see the issue. I saw seven 

 or eight all dive together as with one consent, remain- 

 ing under half a minute or more. On another side you 

 see a party which seem to be playing and pluming 

 themselves. They will run and dive and come up and 



