BIRDS. 73 



At Point Barrow this is one of the commonest ducks, arriving the middle of May and leaving 

 only when the sea freezes over completely. December 9 is Murdoch's latest date. On the Near 

 Islands it breeds sparingly and is abundant in winter. It is a resident on the Commander Islands. 

 The fall of 1791 Sauer noted the arrival of this duck at TJnalaska the 1st of October and records 

 it as wintering there. 



The seal hunters find them in the open spaces in the ice off Saint Michaels from the 1st to the 

 20th of April, and the first open water inshore is sure to attract them. After their arrival it is no 

 uncommon occurrence for the temperature to fall to 25 or 30 degrees below zero, and for furious 

 storms of wind and snow to rage for days, so the first-comers must be hardy and vigorous to with- 

 stand the exjiosure. 



In fall they retreat before the ice and by the 15th or 20th of October they are either on their 

 way south or well out to sea. The great majority of these ducks, however, do not come inshore 

 to their nesting ground until the ponds and tide creeks are pretty well open, somewhere from the 

 12th to 25th of May and most of them resort to the sea-coast during the month of September. 

 Most of the birds reaching the marshes after the middle of May are paired. 



The winter plumage is frequently retained through the nesting season, and I have shot males 

 close to their nests in full winter dress, although it was in mid-June. Between the two plumages, 

 that of winter and summer, is every imaginable gradation, and it was a very difficult matter, as I 

 found, to procure specimens in perfect summer dress. In the breeding season the males have a 

 pinkish flesh-colored bar across the top of the bill. The earliest set of eggs secured by me num- 

 bered five and was taken on May 18 at Saint Michaels. From that date until the end of June 

 fresh eggs may be taken, but the majority of the young are out by the last of this month. 



From the Yukon delta along the coast in each direction their nests are almost invariably 

 placed in close proximity to a pond or tide creek — the sloping grassy bank of the ponds being a 

 favorable location. The parents always keep in the immediate neighborhood and swim anxiously 

 about in the nearest pond when the nest is approached. An unusual amount of dry grassstenis 

 and down plucked from the parent's breast composes the nest, and if the eggs are left they are 

 carefully hidden in the loose material. 



The young are found the middle of August about the ponds and marshy lakes, some only a 

 week or so from the shell and others already trying their wings. As fall approaches young and 

 old are most common along the shores of the inner bays and among the tide-creeks. 



They are among the least suspicious of the ducks, and are easily approached within gunshot, 

 but their poor flesh and great dexterity iu diving render them scarcely worth the amount of am- 

 munition required to obtain them. 



During all the spring season until the young begin to hatch, the males have a rich musical 

 note, imperfectly represented by the syllables A-lesdle-d, d-lmdle-a, frequently repeated in deep, 

 reed-like tones. Amid the general hoarse chorus of water-fowl at this season, the notes of the Old 

 Squaw are so harmonious that the fur traders of the Upper Yukon have christened it the " Organ 

 Duck," a well-merited name. I have frequently stopped and listened with deep pleasure to these 

 harmonious tones, while traversing the broad marshes in the dim twilight at midnight, and while 

 passing a lonely month on the dreary banks of the Yukon delta I lay in my blankets many hours 

 at night and listened to these rythmical sounds, which with a few exceptions were the only ones 

 to break the silence. These notes are somewhat less common during the day. The male is often 

 seen swimming rapidly about the female, his long tail-feathers raised to an angle of about 75 

 degrees and vibrating rapidly from side to side as he passes before the female, littering the love- 

 note at short intervals. If he becomes too pressing in his suit, the female suddenly dives and is 

 instantly followed by her partner, and then a moment later they appear and take wing, and a 

 playful chase ensues, the two diving at full speed and flying above or below in rapid succession 

 until they are tired. It is common for two or three males to join in this foUow-the-leader kind of 

 game after the female, and in the end the latter usually flies to some secluded pool with her choice, 

 while the discomfited suitors move off in search of some easier prize. Several males often con- 

 tinue to utter their musical notes while chasing a female, and make a very pretty chorus. 



Although these birds are far more numerous along the coast of Bering Sea and the Arctic than 

 they are in the interior, yet they are also rather common summer residents along the Yukon and 

 S. Mis. 156 10 



