THE WATER-FOWL OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



THE DUCKS 



FOR the wandering birds that love the water, 

 the Pacific Coast seems more of a natural home 

 than the Atlantic or even the basins of the Mis- 

 sissippi and Missouri. On the latter the water- 

 fowl are compelled to move south in winter, but 

 on the Pacific Coast there is little reason but 

 taste for travel in moving much south of Oregon. 

 Yet they seem to love the drier and warmer sec- 

 tions, and it is but a few years since tens of 

 thousands bred in California ; while even to-day 

 the mallard and teal and some others breed in 

 southern California and even far down in Lower 

 California (Mexico). It seems but a question of 

 disturbance, for it is but a few years since the 

 mallard made his summer home in ponds almost 

 small enough to shoot across, nesting in the tall 

 fringe of tule and typha that lined the shores for 

 many yards into the water. Here the family spent 

 the long summer days, floating calmly about on the 

 smooth surface or muddling in little grassy coves, 



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