Duck-shooting 183 



Habitat — Breeds from Labrador and probably Hudson Bay, Great 

 Slave Lake, and British Columbia, north to the Arctic Coast at 

 Franklin Bay and Kotzebue Sound, the Bering Sea coast of 

 Alaska and the Aleutian Islands ; occurs also in Greenland in 

 summer and south on the Atlantic Coast to New York, and on 

 the Pacific to Monterey, California. Winters on the Atlantic 

 Coast from Maine to North Carolina and rarely to Florida and 

 Jamaica ; on the Aleutian Islands, and on the Pacific Coast from 

 British Columbia at least, south to San Quentin Bay, Lower Cali- 

 fornia. Occurs not commonly in the interior, in Manitoba and 

 Ontario, and south to western New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, 

 Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Colo- 

 rado, Wyoming, and Louisiana. Frequently taken in Europe, 

 and occurs in Bermuda. 



A relative and intimate companion of the 

 white-winged scoter, the surf duck, is seen under 

 the same circumstances on our coasts, but is more 

 common in the interior, turning up frequently in 

 unexpected places. We see the first flocks of 

 these birds along the shores of the northern 

 United States in early fall, and by October in 

 abundance. They congregate on the same 

 feeding-grounds with the other scoters, but 

 usually remain by themselves. The surf duck 

 is readily distinguished from the white-winged 

 scoter by the absence of white on the wings and 

 its more peculiarly shaped bill. On account of 

 the white patch on the head of the male, this bird 

 often goes by the name of skunk-head coot in 

 New England and on Long Island. 



The surf duck is killed with decoys and over 

 lines of boats anchored at short intervals apart. 



