SEA FOWL IN NOVA SCOTIA — GILPIN. 147 



with lake or orange bill, and scarlet lee - gleaming from the velvet 

 darkness of their suits, play this game so stoutly that among the 

 hardy fishermen they have gained the name of courting coots. 

 Thus it appears that pairing takes place long before the instinct 

 of migration moves the whole mass northwards. This migration 

 is strongest during April, and lasts into the middle of May. 

 Beginning far away southward and west, Florida perchance, it 

 strikes our westernmost point, Westport, Brier Island, passes 

 along Yarmouth, Shelburne, Lunenburg, strikes Sambro, the 

 western head of Halifax Harbour, and pours its tide all along the 

 eastern passages, Canseau, and finally leaves our shores at the 

 north-eastern cape of Cape Breton. For all day long and for 

 many days in fine weather, flock after flock of heralds, scoters, 

 and eider ducks, every few minutes come scattering along, flying 

 low upon the ocean, but rising when passing a rocky point. 

 From many a rocky ledge, or boat anchored to a buoy, comes 

 flash after flash, followed by the roar of a duck gun, and three 

 or four victims falling headlong into the sea. The heralds and 

 eiders seem to perform their flight first, followed by the yellow 

 billed scoters and the velvet ducks, called May white wing, be- 

 cause they prolonged their migration until May. Thus, as I 

 have said before, these flights are obvious and make a pretty 

 scene in the landscape, whilst the geese, flying high in the air, 

 escape our notice, and the true ducks and their allies disappear 

 as it were unnoticed, but no doubt performing the like migra- 

 tions on inland routes and fresh water streams. Some fifty 

 years ago, it was my delight as a boy to watch this feathery 

 stream as it flowed by the headlands of Newport, R. I. A re- 

 spectable and grave set of men called gunners locally, but termed 

 fowlers in law, and having common rights under the " Fowlers 

 and Fishers' Act," pursued this sport with great ardour. They 

 had unwritten but severely respected law, of every boat's exact 

 position on the water, and ever}" man's right of fire on land. 

 They owned a weather-stained old grey granite hut called the 

 fish house, with its boats chained all round it, and further away 

 towards the sea, a stone duck fort, a circular wall of dry stone, 

 titanic, and looking so like what I have in after years seen the 

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