90 DUCKS AND GEESE,. 
this subfamily are the Redhead, Canvasback, Scaup or 
Broadbill, Whistler, Bufflehead, Old Squaw, Eider, three 
species of Scoters or “ Coots” and Ruddy Duck. These 
are all northern-breeding birds who visit the waters of 
our bays and coasts during their migrations or in the 
winter. 
The bill in both River and Bay Ducks has a series of 
gutters on either side which serve as strainers. The 
birds secure a large part of their food—of small mollusks, 
crustaceans, and seeds of aquatic plants—from the bot- 
tom, taking in with it a quantity of mud, which they 
get rid of by closing the bill and forcing it out through 
the strainers, the food being retained. 
Geese are more terrestrial than Ducks, and, though 
they feed under water by tipping, often visit the land to 
procure grass, corn, or cereals, which they readily nip off. 
The white-faced, black-necked Canada Goose is our only 
commen species. Its long overland journeys, while 
migrating, render it familiar to many who have seen it 
only in the air. It migrates northward in March and 
April and returns in October and November, breeding 
from the Northern States northward and wintering from 
New Jersey southward. 
The two Swans, Whistling and Trumpeter, found in 
North America, are generally rare on the Atlantic 
coast. 
HERONS, STORKS, IBISES, ETC. (ORDER 
HERODIONES.) 
HERONS AND BITTERNS. (FAMILY ARDEIDZ.) . 
Or the seventy-five known members of this family 
fourteen inhabit eastern North America. Most of these 
are Southern in distribution, only six or seven species 
regularly visiting the Northern States. Their large size 
we 
