86 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



winter, the head, neck and body anteriorly, white, but the gray cheek patch 

 persistent, and a large dark patch below this ; bill, at all seasons, black, broadly 

 orange barred. Female: — Without lengthened scapulars or tail feathers; the 

 bill, dusky greenish, and otherwise different; but recognized by presence of 

 head and neck patches, and absence of white on the wing. Length, l.'j-20 or 

 more, according to tail ; wing, 8-9. 



Hae. — Northern hemisphere, in North America south to the Potomac and 

 the Ohio ; breeds far northward. 



Nest, on the ground. 



Eggs, six or seven, drab color, shaded with green. 



Vast numbers of "cowheens" (as these birds are called here) spend 

 the winter in Lake Ontario, out on the deep water away from the 

 shore. Even there they are not free from danger, for great numbers 

 get entangled in the gill nets. Passing along the beach in winter, 

 strings of drowned, draggled cowheens may be seen dangling from 

 the clothes lines about the fishermen's outhouses. I have frequently 

 heard the fishermen, when trying to force a sale, declare positively, 

 that if buried in the earth for twenty-four hours before being pre- 

 pared for the table, these birds are excellent eating. Notwithstand- 

 ing this assertion, the supply still keeps ahead of the demand, and 

 numbers are turned over to the pigs, a sorrowful end for the beau- 

 tiful, lively Clangula hyemali.^. 



This species frequents the northern shores of both continents, 

 making its summer home in the Arctic regions, where, among the 

 tall grass by the margins of retired lakes and ponds, the nests are 

 found in great numbers. Nelson says, regarding its place among the 

 birds of Alaska : " The Old .SquaM' is the first duck to reach high 

 northern latitudes in spring, and along the Alaskan coast of Behring 

 Sea is one of the most abundant species during the summer. The 

 seal hunters find them in open spaces in the ice off St. ^Michael's, 

 from the 1st to the 20th April, but the first open water near the 

 shore is sure to attract them. In the fall they retreat before the ice, 

 and by the 15th or 20th October they are either on their way south 

 or well out to sea." 



" During the pairing season the males ha\ e a rich, musical note,, 

 frequently repeated in deep, reed-like tones. Amid the general 

 chorus of water-fowl which is heard at this season, the notes of the 

 Old Squaw are so harmonious that the fur-traders of the upper 

 Yukon have christened him the Organ Duck, a well-merited name. 

 I have frequently stopped and listened with deep pleasure to these 

 harmonious tones while traversing the broad marshes in the dim 

 twilight at midnight, and while passing a lonely month on the drearv 



