BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 141 



mation; and to make the matter worse, the greater part of 

 them are killed on the way north to their breeding grounds. 

 He has had every opportunity to observe the eflFect of this 

 shooting on the Maine coast and note its results. It would 

 seem from the descriptions of earlier writers that this species 

 was formerly much more numerous than now. Peabody 

 (Birds of Massachusetts, 1839) states that " the caravans of 

 this species that pass along our coasts are large, and their 

 noise can be heard at a great distance." De Kay (Birds of 

 New York, 1844) says " they appear on our coast in autumn 

 in immense flocks, and almost cover the surface of our bays 

 in the coldest and severest weather of the winter." Merriam 

 (Connecticut, 1877) tells of hundreds of thousands on the 

 sound, covering the water as far as the eye can reach. Mr. 

 Israel R. Sheldon of Pawtuxet, R. I., says that they are driven 

 out of Narragansett Bay, where they were formerly very com- 

 mon. Mr. Willard W. Robbins of Medfield, Mass., says (1910) 

 that he has known the occupants of six boats to kill as many 

 as two hundred in one tide eight years ago. Mr. John M. 

 Winslow of Nantucket says that he used to kill one hundred 

 in a morning; but now gets very few. Eaton states in his 

 Birds of New York (1910) that Old-squaws are far less abun- 

 dant than thirty years ago. 



It is probable that the continual harassing that this bird 

 has received on the Maine coast has caused its decrease there 

 by driving many south to the shoals off Cape Cod, so keeping 

 up the Cape Cod supply. Notwithstanding the fact that the 

 species has probably decreased somewhat even in our waters, 

 the great breeding grounds of the far north still provide large 

 numbers, and it is abundant on our coasts. 



It is a very hardy bird, stiff set, strongly boned and 

 muscled, covered with a coat of thick down and tough feath- 

 ers, and rarely leaves its arctic home imtil fairly driven out 

 by the ice. It is commonly seen in numbers on the New Eng- 

 land coast from late November to late March. It is perhaps 

 as swift on wing as any North American Duck. Sometimes 

 a flock flying low over the water will plunge quickly down at 

 the sound of a gun and pitch into the water, only to fly off 



