12.8 British Diving Ducks 
Old Squaw resorts to them in increasing numbers, frequently sitting on the ice. By the first week in 
July they begin to abandon the tundra and collect in large flocks along the shore. 
" After the ice has broken up and gone away they are to be looked for especially along the shore, 
although a small party is generally to be found in each of the large lagoons. Through July and August 
they vary in abundance, some days being very plentiful, while for two or three days at a time none at 
all are to be seen. At this season they fly up and down not far from the shore and light in the sea. 
Towards the end of August they are apt to form large ' beds ' near the station, and this habit continues 
in September whenever there is sufficient open water. 
" Many come from the east in September and cross the isthmus at Pergniak, and continue on down 
the coast to the south-west. We noticed them going south-west past Point Franklin, August 31, 1883, 
in very large flocks. 
"After October ist they grow scarcer, but some are always to be seen as late as there is any open 
water. 
"They begin to lay about the middle of June, and downy young were found July 20th." 
The principal enemies of the species are the cowardly White-tailed Eagles, who kill 
numbers of half-grown young and wounded birds, the Greenland and Iceland falcons, the 
three Long-tailed Skuas, and the Great Black-back and Glaucous Gulls. Arctic foxes and 
Polar bears also account for a good many before they can fly. Naumann details the follow- 
ing formidable list of parasites that affect the entrails of this species : " Tcenia teres, 
Tropidocerca inflata, Spiroptera crassicauda, Trichosome brevicolle, Echinorhynchus 
polymorpkus, Distomum ovafum, Distomum concavmn, Distomum globulus, Disto7num 
brachysomum, Distomum pyriforme, Monostomum alocatum, Monostomum attenuatum, 
Holostomum erraticum, Notscotyle triserialis, Tcenia groenlandica, Schistocephalus di- 
morpkus y 
This is one of the easiest of the sea-ducks to shoot with the shoulder- gun, for adults, 
especially when they first arrive, are easy to approach in an open sailing-boat. When 
viewed on the sea, if the birds are to windward, they will permit a boat to tack many times 
at fairly close range until it is well above the wind. When down wind they can be 
approached with some degree of certainty by sailing directly to the flock, which only shows 
its intention of rising when the boat is within seventy or eighty yards. The birds then 
elevate the head and tail, and even then often hesitate until the boat is within thirty yards 
before taking the wing. Then they pass, calling as they fly to right or left of the boat, 
offering an easy chance. They are not difficult to kill if hit well forward, but winged birds, 
especially in a lumpy sea, are always difficult to recover. I have often seen Long-tailed 
Ducks, after swinging away on a side wind out of shot, make a tack again in towards the 
boat, thus offering chances that were at least unexpected. This is particularly the case if 
one of their number has by chance come near the boat and been killed. They seem to 
have more curiosity, tameness, or sympathy with their own species than any of the sea- 
ducks, and for this reason can easily be shot over decoys amongst ice-floes, a practice for 
killing them which is much in force in Finland, the Baltic, and the north-eastern coasts of 
o 
America. "On the coast of Aland," says Mr. Dresser (p. 622), "vast numbers are shot 
by the peasants, either by watching for them near the open spaces in the ice, or by putting 
out stuffed decoys." " It is not very unusual," writes Dr. Sundstrom (quoted by Dresser, 
p. 622), " for one peasant to shoot in a single spring 300 or more Long-tailed Ducks, 
besides Eider, Scoters, and other ducks ; and at one peasant's place called Klafskar, where 
this bird is very numerous, the peasant has shot as many as 600 to 800 in one spring, all 
