286 FEATHERED GAME 
be 
that the little ‘‘flapper’’ will find it, for the 
Black Duck at any age is a most skillful 
skulker. 
Though by far the greater number have gone 
on for summer quarters to Labrador and the 
Hudson Bay country, the more remote lakes and 
ponds of Maine are alive with these fine birds 
during the breeding season. Scarcely a se- 
eluded cove or hidden nook in their margins 
but has its brood of ‘‘waddling’’ youngsters, 
happy in the plenty that leaves no want un- 
filled. When the summer wanes and the young 
birds have become strong enough to journey, 
straggling ducks begin to make their appear- 
ance in the salt marshes, then in small bunches, 
a few at a time, as cold weather approaches 
they gather at the sea into flocks ranging from 
twenty to two hundred birds. Near my home 
they gather winter after winter at the mouth of 
a fresh water river in a body of, at times, as 
many as five thousand birds, coming in at night 
and spending their days on the salt water, ex- 
cept in bad weather, when they huddle on the 
ice at a safe distance from shore. From the 
first of September such of their number as are 
not inclined to brave the rigors of a New Eng- 
