158 AMERICAN GAME. 
shores of North America, from the Bay of Boston to the 
Balize. 
In the tepid waters of Florida, the great bay of Mobile, 
the sea lakes of Borgne and Pontchartrain, and all along 
the muddy shoals and alluvial flats of the lower Missis- 
sippi, these aquatic races dwell in myriads during the 
winter months, when the ice is thick even in the sea 
bays of the Delaware and Chesapeake, and when all the 
gushing streams and vocal rivulets of the Northern and 
Middle States, are bound in frozen silence. In the 
spring, according to the temperature of the season, from 
the middle of April until the end of May, these migra- 
tory tribes begin to visit us of the northern shores, from 
the Capes of the Chesapeake, along all the river estua- 
ries, sea bars, lagoons, and land-locked bays, as they are 
incorrectly termed, of Maryland and Delaware, the Jer- 
sey shores and the Long Island waters, so far as to 
Boston Bay, beyond which the iron-bound and rugged 
nature of the coast deters them from adventuring, in the 
great flights with which they infest our more succulent 
alluvial shores and sea marshes. 
_ With the end of May, with the exception only of a few 
loitering stragglers, wounded, perhaps, or wing-worn, 
which linger after the departure of their brethren, they 
have all departed, steering their way, unseen, at immense 
‘altitudes, through the trackless air, across the mighty 
continent, across the vast lakes of the north, across the 
unreclaimed. and almost unknown hunting-grounds of 
