I40 WILD-FOWL, OR SWIMMERS 



classification I have given, which is that of the 

 American Ornithological Union, is sufficient. The 

 wood-duck is a shoal-water duck, and is often found 

 feeding with other dabblers, such as mallards and 

 spoonbills. The sportsman does not care to follow 

 ornithological refinements too far. The sea-ducks, or 

 divers, escape more often when wounded, by diving, 

 but the shoal-water dabblers are extremely expert at 

 hiding in the reeds. 



The wild-fowl are migrants. They go north to build 

 their nests and rear their young. Many of them go 

 within the arctic circle. In the West many ducks and 

 some geese nest within the northern boundary of the 

 United States. But in a few years at most not one 

 will remain to nest, and it will not be long before the 

 Western lakes, which are now crowded every spring 

 and fall with fowls, will be as desolate as the New 

 England ponds. 



With their young, the wild-fowl return to the United 

 States early in the autumn, and as the waters freeze in 

 the Northern States they proceed southward. With 

 the first signs of spring, often as early as February, 

 they move north again, and so soon as the ice disap- 

 pears they may be looked for on the bays and marshes. 

 The hardier varieties, such as the canvas-backs, red 

 heads, and the scaups, or black-heads, are the last to 

 go south in the autumn. Some of them winter in the 

 vicinity of New York, many more at Chesapeake and 

 Currituck Sound. 



The swans are large birds, and now in many places 

 extremely rare. They are probably more abundant 

 on the Pacific Coast than elsewhere. 



