44 



THE OOLOGIST 



this gunner tells us of having killed 

 a whole flock of about twenty birds 

 (species questionable) over his decoys 

 one day several years ago, in October 

 (?) after a severe storm. The flock 

 dropped into the bunch of stools and, 

 although shot at and driven away they 

 persisted in coming back until the 

 last bird was killed by this pot-hunter. 

 The gunner, a friend of my brother's, 

 informed me that he had a great 

 "feed" off of them, and I don't doubt 

 it, but I have my own opinion as to 

 the palatableness of Scoters, though 

 he said they were delicious, tasted, 

 and as good eating as Broadles (Les- 

 ser Scaups). Gunners generally re- 

 gard them as unfit for food, claiming 

 them to be ranky and fishy, but this is 

 a matter of opinion and taste. 



R. F. Miller. 



A Flight of Buffleheads. 



Flights of waterfowl are of yearly oc- 

 currence. 



Usually these flights contain a mix- 

 ture of all sorts, but at times flights 

 of almost entirely one species occur. 



Flights of Long-tails often occur in 

 early April during storms, and some- 

 times large numbers of Scaup appear. 



The BuiTlehead is a rather common 

 April migrant, but on April 23, 1903, 

 occurred the only real flght of recent 

 years. During the night of the 22d a 

 high Northwest wind prevailed and 

 two inches of snow fell. All day of 

 the 23rd there was a high wind and 

 frequent blinding snow squalls which 

 combination kept the ducks in all day. 

 I spent the day at my old hunting 

 grounds at Grass Flats about five 

 miles below here and as I was the 

 only gunner I had things all my own 

 way. Flock after flock of twenty to 

 forty each of Buffleheads were along 

 shore all day and I spent all of my 

 time crawling up onto the flocks and 

 looking them over and watching them. 



With very few exceptions, the entire 

 flight was Buffleheads. At one time 

 nearly 200 were in range at once, the 

 closest were hardly twenty feet away. 



There was a flock of eleven Red- 

 breasted Mergansers and during the 

 day I saw several Long-tails in full 

 black and brown breeding dress. The 

 Lesser Scaup, our commonest duck, 

 was represented by but one little flock. 

 With one large flock I saw a nice male 

 Ruddy. 



When several large flocks were to- 

 gether it was a beautiful ' sight to 

 watch them feeding, playing and rest- 

 ing, and I spent most of my time lay- 

 ing around in the brush and snow tak- 

 ing it all in. 



If I had followed the usual custom 

 of duck hunters and had raked them 

 right and left and shot everything in 

 sight I could have filled my boat. 



As it was I shot too many. I was 

 very careful to pick out only the finest 

 drakes and all told shot fifteen Buffle- 

 head. They were beauties and in per- 

 fect dress. The finest I mounted. I 

 also took four of the Long-tails in 

 breeding dress, a drake Red-breasted 

 Merganser and the male Ruddy. 



There seemed to be no movement at 

 all of land birds and I did not see a 

 new arrival. 



R. B. Simpson, Warren, Pa. 



While in Canada in June, 1909, 

 about fourteen miles Southeast of 

 Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, we 

 found the only set of six eggs of the 

 Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius pho- 

 eniceus fortes) that has ever come 

 under our observation. It was situ- 

 ated in the midst of a tuft of grass 

 at the edge of a slough surrounded by 

 water four of five inches deep and 

 near a small lake, an eighth of a mile 

 in diameter in a partially timbered 

 part of the territory. The eggs were 

 fresh and are now in our collection. 

 They average considerably smaller 

 than other eggs of the same species 

 in our possession. 



Editor. 



