14 NORTH AMKKh'W DICKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 
breeding grounds late in August, but that active migration does not 
occur until September. A shooting season in northern New England 
or the northern portion of the Mississippi Valley that began Septem- 
ber 1 would satisfy the demands of conservative sportsmen of these 
sections. In the southern United States, however, this date would 
anticipate by a full month the time when enough ducks arrive to make 
hunting worth while, and at Currituck Sound, North Carolina, shoot- 
ing does not begin until November. 
In the northern halt' of the United States the great body of ducks 
and geese depart with the advent of freezing weather, and but few 
linger after early November. On the other hand, south of the Ohio 
River and Chesapeake Bay the ducks and geese remain all winter, and, 
unless protected, will be harassed throughout tin 1 entire cold season. 
The greatest slaughter of ducks now occurs in the section named, 
especially in the Mississippi Valley from southern Missouri southward, 
and here more stringent laws are needed. It is claimed above that 
the shooting season should be confined to the period of migration, and 
if this is true then it follows that fall shooting should cease as soon 
as, or soon after, fall migration has ceased. Regular migration has 
closed by the first of December, and though the birds are constantly 
shifting their position all through the winter as the weather changes, 
these movements can hardty be called migration. 
MIGRATION. 
Ducks, geese, and swans are migratory. While man) r breed under 
the torrid sun of the Tropics, others migrate to the most distant parts 
of the world for the purpose of nesting. As far into the frozen north 
as land extends geese summer and successfully rear their young. 
A few species are nonmigratory, and individuals of other species, as 
the ruddy duck, remain through the year near the nesting grounds; 
but most of the ducks and geese are strictly migratory and some per- 
form extensive journeys. The brant of northern Greenland, for 
instance, probably spend the winter along the South Atlantic coast of 
the United States. Some of the blue-winged teal that nest in southern 
Canada desert North America in fall and cross the equator to spend 
the winter in central South America. Some of the pintail ducks of 
Alaska and northeastern Asia cross the equator to the islands of the 
South Pacific, 4,000 miles from their breeding grounds. 
Most waterfowl, in migrating, follow the same route both in spring 
and fall. The ducks that migrate north along the Mississippi River 
in spring probably are the same individuals that traversed this route 
the previous autumn. Among the geese there is a single exception to 
tin- pule. The common eastern brant (Branta bemicla glcmcogastra) 
in spring passes north along the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Saint 
