182 WILD-FOWL 



birds ; but I am satisfied, as a general proposition, that 

 the ducks that feed on corn and wheat, and the wild- 

 rice or wild-oats and acorns, are superior to those 

 which find their food in the salt marshes and bays 

 near the ocean. The same rule obtains with reference 

 to the black-breasted plover and many of the shore- 

 birds, as we shall observe later. 



The red-heads arrive from the South in March usu- 

 ally, sometimes earlier if the weather is suitable, and 

 when not much shot at remain until late in the 

 spring. Many of them would no doubt breed in New 

 York State if given a chance, and they no doubt will 

 be before long, since the sentiment against shooting 

 wild-fowl in the spring is spreading rapidly. Mr. Job 

 found them recently breeding with the canvas-backs 

 and ruddy-ducks in good numbers about the lakes oi 

 North Dakota. 



In the autumn the red-heads return so soon as the 

 weather turns cold, usually in November, but earlier if 

 the Northern waters should freeze over. Large num- 

 bers still come to the bays and along the Atlantic 

 Coast, and they are a very common duck during their 

 migration across the Middle and Western States to the 

 Rocky Mountains. Large numbers are killed annually 

 at the many duck clubs about the Great Lakes, and I be- 

 lieve there are more red-heads killed during the flight 

 at the St. Clair flats in Michigan than any other 

 ducks The flight was hardly on when I left the flats, 

 but the local gunners were all engaged in painting 

 red-head decoys, and a few days later these ducks were 

 so abundant in the Detroit markets that many could 

 not be used, and, the weather turning warm, they were 



