jBucfe 



I/THOUGH we have on our coast many kinds of 

 ducks as immigrants, residents, or strag- 

 glers * those that afford the best sport or are most 

 sought after for food are the scooters, of which we 

 have three species, the white wing, the largest 

 Oedemia fusca, the black, 0. americana, and the 

 surf, 0. perspicillata. They are very early mi- 

 grants, first appearing towards the end of March, 

 and remaining till December, when they go south. 

 A few scattered birds breed along the coast line, 

 but the majority go inland and further north. I 

 have seen some breeding on most of the large in- 

 land lakes and along the Labrador coast. They 

 congregate in immense flocks wherever any pro- 

 per food can be found, principally in the entran- 

 ces of large rivers. Their chief food is a species 

 of small black mussel Mytilus but they will 

 also eat small fish of various kinds, and herring 

 spawn. This last mentioned seems to be quite 

 a tit-bit, and when the ducks are feeding 

 on it a lot of shooting may be done before it drives 

 them away. About the middle of May they leave 

 the sea coast and fly inland at night in big flocks, 

 and very high in the air, appearing no bigger 

 than swallows. I believe that they do not breed 



* See List of Birds at the end of the book. 



