BUFFLE-HEAD 345 



It is not a particularly common duck in the large fresh-water sounds of North 

 Carolina and Virginia but in Pamlico and Core Sounds, North Carolina, it abounds. 

 There must be hundreds of thousands on these great waters, scattered all over the 

 shoaler parts, among Scaup, Golden-eyes, Scoters, Brant and Red-heads. Even 

 farther south than this it is far from rare, not at all uncommon around Charles- 

 ton (where the Golden-eye is rare) and wintering even to Florida. At Canaveral 

 Club, near Titusville, only five were shot in thirteen years, but this probably does 

 not represent its true status. 



On the Pacific coast it is very abundant all the way down to San Diego Bay, 

 where as many as one hundred have been reported at Christmas time (Bird-lore, 

 vol. 25, p. 15, 1923). Its tending to a more southerly dispersal than the two Golden- 

 eyes is well seen on the western coast. 



Major Brooks tells me that it is not diminishing as a breeding duck in the interior 

 of British Columbia and it was spoken of as the most abundant breeding duck on the 

 north fork of the Kuskokwim (Dice, 1920). Eastward it is not so common, keeping, 

 of course, to wooded regions, but it is certainly very plentiful on suitable waters all 

 over Alberta, and Harper found it tenth in order of abundance of the breeding ducks 

 at Lake Athabasca, where the number of its nests was apparently limited only by 

 available hollows. 



Its winter center of abundance seems to be along the coasts of Washington and 

 Oregon where its numbers have been attested to by very many observers, some even 

 considering it almost the commonest wintering duck. California naturalists have 

 noted some decrease and recorded 328 as sold in San Francisco markets in the winter 

 of 1895-96 (Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918). It must be far from uncommon in 

 autumn in eastern Colorado for as many as 185 have been shot by one club (Kenni- 

 cott Duck Club) during nineteen years. I do not doubt that it is far more abundant 

 than this score would indicate (Bergtold, 1924). 



It is curious that this duck should be so common on the Gulf coast of Texas and 

 Louisiana, but such is the case in many places. Its winter range is indeed a wide one 

 in the West, both on the coasts and in the larger lakes, such as Klamath Lake in 

 Oregon. 



In the Mississippi Valley there are indications that it is not as plentiful as it 

 formerly was. 



Enemies. In southeastern Alaska A. M. Bailey (MS.) found that mink were 

 catching some of these ducks along the edge of the ice. Allan Brooks found that on 

 the British Columbia coast the Bald Eagle preyed on them, as it did on other ducks. 

 Some are caught in fish-nets in the Great Lakes region and in Pamlico Sound, North 

 Carolina. 



