AMERICAN MERGANSER 35 



water. Instead of a piece of ice I find it to be the breast 

 of the sheldrake, which so reflects the light as to look 

 larger than it is, steadily sailing this way and that with 

 its companion, who is diving from time to time. They 

 have chosen the opening farthest removed from all 

 shores. As I look I see the ice drifting in upon them 

 and contracting their water, till finally they have but a 

 few square rods left, while there ai-e forty or fifty acres 

 near by. This is the first bird of the spring that I have 

 seen or heard of. 



March 16, 1860. Saw a flock of sheldrakes a hundred 

 rods off, on the Great Meadows, mostly males with a 

 few females, all intent on fishing. They were coasting 

 along a spit of bare ground that showed itself in the 

 middle of the meadow, sometimes the whole twelve 

 apparently in a straight line at nearly equal distances 

 apart, with each its head under water, rapidly coasting 

 along back and forth, and ever and anon one, having 

 caught something, would be pursued by the others. It 

 is remarkable that they find their finny prey on the 

 middle of the meadow now, and even on the very inmost 

 side, as I afterward saw, though the water is quite low. 

 Of course, as soon as they are seen on the meadows 

 there are fishes there to be caught. I never see them 

 fish thus in the channel. Perhaps the fishes lie up there 

 for warmth already. 



March 17, 1860. I see a large flock of sheldrakes, 

 which have probably risen from the pond, go over my 

 head in the woods. A dozen large and compact birds 

 flying with great force and rapidity, spying out the land, 

 eyeing every traveller, fast and far they " steam it " on 



