AMI CBH w ICKBG \n-ii:. 19 
The material for determining the geographic range of the water- 
fowl included in this bulletin has been derived from various publica- 
tions, from museum specimens, and from the note- of field agents of 
the Biological Survey. The data <»n migration are derived almost 
entirely from the migration schedules contributed since 1884 to this 
Bureau by hundreds of observers distributed throughout the United 
States and Canada. Opportunity i- here taken t<> extend acknowl- 
edgments to the many whose painstaking observations for a long series 
of year- have made possible the present publication. 
DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF DUCKS. 
Merganser americanus Cass. . American Merganser. 
Breeding range. The principal breeding ground of this merganser 
i^ in southern Canada from the maritime provinces to Saskatchewan. 
Southward the species nests quite commonly in Maine, the colder 
portions of Now Hampshire, and in Vermont; it probably has bred 
casually or accidentally in Massachusetts. It is rather common in the 
Adirondack^ and is not rare in the lake region of northwestern New 
York. It formerly bred in several of the mountainous counties of 
central Pennsylvania (Perry. Lancaster. Clinton, and Lycoming), and 
may yet breed occasionally in that State and in Ohio. It breeds com- 
monly at Ottawa and the Muskoka region in Ontario and it is not rare 
in the southern part of the Province and on the shores and islands 
of Lake Ontario. It i^ common in northern Michigan — rarely a 3 far 
south as central Michigan also in southwestern Minnesota (Heron 
Lake), South Dakota (Fort Sisseton, Black Hills), and south in the 
Rocky Mountains to northern New Mexico (near Santa Fe). north 
central Arizona (Fort Verde), and the Sierras of California. 
The breeding range extends north to central Ungava (Hamilton 
Rjver), Hudson Bay (York Factory), Great Slave Lake, and on the 
Pacific coast regularly to the Queen Charlotte Islands, and rarely to 
the base of the Alaskan Peninsula at about latitude 60 (Iak Lake. 
July 24, L896). 
Winter range. On the Atlantic coast this duck ranges from Maine 
to South Carolina, rarely to Georgia and Florida; in mild winters it 
occurs as far north as Prince Edward [stand; in the interior it winters 
from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Ontario, Lake Michigan, Kansas, 
northern Colorado, Idaho, British Columbia, and rarely to (Jnalaska 
Island and the Pribilof Island-. In winter it reaches northern 
Mexico and northern Lower California. It occur- occasionally in 
the Bermudas. 
Spring migration. — Though the northward movement of this mer- 
ganser begins early -late February and there is much activity in the 
Mississippi Valley in March, <>n the Atlantic coasl the advance beyond 
the usual winter home is comparatively late. The average date of 
