94 DUCKS AND GEESE. 



this subfamily are the Redhead, Canvasback, Scaup or 

 Broadbill, Whistler, Bufflehead, Old Squaw, Eider, three 

 species of Scoters or " Coots " and Ruddy Duck. These 

 are all northern-breeding birds who visit the waters of 

 our bays and coasts during their migrations or in the 

 winter. 



The bill in both River and Bay Ducks has a series of 

 gutters on either side which serve as strainers. The 

 birds secure a large part of their food — of small mollusks, 

 crustaceans, and seeds of aquatic plants — from the bot- 

 tom, taking in with it a quantity of mud, which they 

 get rid of by closing the biU and forcing it out through 

 the strainers, the food being retained. 



Geese are more terrestrial than Ducks, and, though 

 they feed under water by tipping, often visit the land to 

 procure grass, corn, or cereals, which they readily nip off. 

 The white-faced, black -necked Canada Goose is our only 

 common species. Its long overland journeys, while 

 migrating, render it familiar to many who have seen it 

 only in the air. It migrates northward in March and 

 April and returns in October and ISTovember, breeding 

 from the Northern States northward and wintering from 

 New Jersey southward. 



The two Swans, Whistling and Trumpeter, found in 

 North America, are generally rare on the Atlantic 

 coast. 



HEBONS, STOKKS, IBISES, ETC. (OBDEB 

 HEBODIONES.) 



Heeons and Bitterns. (Family Ardbid^.) 



Of the seventy-five known members of this family 

 fourteen inhabit eastern North America. Most of these 

 are Southern in distribution, only six or seven species 

 regularly visiting the Northern States. Their large size 



