250 THE Birps Asout Us. 
would be difficult to knock down more than two or three at one shot. 
Their sense of smell is uncommonly acute, and their eyesight, if 
we may judge from their activity at night, must be better than that 
of most species. When wounded on the water they will immediately 
take to the shore, if in the vicinity, and conceal themselves under the 
first covert, so that one accustomed to this habit can have no difficulty 
in finding them.” 
Along the Atlantic seaboard the marine ducks, or 
such as are found in that region in abundance and 
but sparingly inland, are known as migratory birds 
now, whatever in the distant long ago might have been 
their breeding habits. Prominent among these are 
the “ Red-head” and “‘ Canvas-back,” so highly prized 
as food; the two “ Broad-bills,” the “ Whistler,” “ But- 
ter-ball,’ and Ruddy Duck. As sea-coast “ fowl,” 
spending their time in feeding where they can and 
eluding the gunners if they can, these birds do not 
present any marked habits that are of special interest. 
In the northwest some of these ducks breed within 
the limits of the United States, but now probably 
never do so south of the northern boundary of 
Maine, or in its northernmost counties. 
The Ejider-ducks, so well known for the down 
they provide, or rather are forced to yield up to man, 
are marine species, and yet occasionally have been 
met with as far inland as the Great Lakes. The 
Scoters, or “ Coots,” are three in number, that are 
found at sea along our sea-coast in autumn and 
winter. They are migratory, and in the west are 
found also on our large rivers and the lakes. They 
breed in the north. Of the American Scoter, as it 
is called, Wilson writes as follows, and the quotation 
will as well apply to the others as seen on our coast : 
