LAMELLIROSTRES. 339 



two, measuring less than five feet in length; it breeds in 

 the Arctic regions and winters much further south. 

 The trumpeter nests in some parts of our northern border 

 states, as Dakota, and from there northward. The 

 nests of the whistler are ready-made grassy depressions; 

 but the trumpeter constructs a nest out of feathers and 

 down, intermingled with hay. Both these huge birds 

 are seen in the Mississippi valley as they fly to and from 

 their nesting grounds. 



The Lamellirostres are migratory birds, as a whole, 

 with the exceptions of the domestic chickens and geese 

 and turkeys; and this is a case where man has been 

 instrumental in bringing about an artificial condition. 

 Cases are on record where some of these migratory wild 

 birds have been detained in captivity till they have been 

 induced to breed there; the young birds have appeared 

 contented until some band of their wild relatives has 

 appeared on the scene, and then the captive birds mani- 

 fested their desire to be out and away. But* the remote 

 generations of these birds, reared year after year, have 

 finally seemed to lose the wild instinct. 



The flight of the wild ducks and geese is the most 

 characteristic thing in the spring and fall skies, with 

 their regular V-shaped formations, shifting and changing 

 to suit the layers of air through which they are flying, 

 but never losing the characteristic form. So regular 

 are their habits of migration that they have become 

 weather prophets of no mean order. After a hard 

 winter, everyone will remember the first thrill of spring at 

 the sound of the honk, honk, overhead. 



The eider, which is decidedly a bird of the high 

 latitudes, is valued for the down with which the mother 

 lines her nest ; it is plucked from her own breast, and the 



