FOLLOWING THE WATER-BIRDS 157 



guillemot, eider duck, red-breasted merganser, com- 

 mon and arctic terns, Leach's petrel or ' Mother 

 Carey's chicken," and double-crested cormorant. 

 On islands from Massachusetts south the common, 

 roseate, and least terns and the laughing gull breed 

 locally and sparingly, the pitiful remnant of the mil- 

 linery traffic. The black tern comes as a migrant, 

 breeding in the sloughs of the Northwest. A few 

 other terns may be met as rare stragglers. The 

 species found in winter have been mentioned in the 

 chapter on winter birds. 



The periods of migration are the best times of all. 

 In spring, April is the month for ducks and geese, 

 and May for the shore-birds. On the southward 

 flight the shore-birds begin to return in July, but the 

 height of migration is in August for most of the 

 smaller species and September for the others. One 

 small species, the red-backed sandpiper, or dunlin, is 

 very late, seldom appearing before the middle of Sep- 

 tember and being common in October on the beaches, 

 after all the other small fry have moved on. Octo- 

 ber is the great month for ducks, and late October 

 and November for geese and the hardier ducks, like 

 the oldsquaw, mergansers, and eiders. 



Inland, the migration of water-birds is, of course, 

 not nearly as conspicuous as on the coast. Very lit- 

 tle is seen of late years on Eastern inland waters of 

 the shore-birds. Most frequently seen of this class 

 of migrants is the solitary sandpiper, found alone or 

 at most in pairs, by any little pool or larger body of 



