312 
SWIMMERS. 
open rivers and bays, sometimes considerably inland. Indeed, 
I have never seen them anywhere so numerous as in the 
Neuse River, round Newbern, forty miles from the ocean, 
where, in company with the Canvas-back and Buffle-head, 
they are seen constantly in February and March. They are 
also numerous in Chesapeake Bay, and in the course of the 
winter extend their migrations as far as St. Domingo and other 
of the West India Islands, as well as into Cayenne in the trop- 
ical parts of the continent. 
I he VVhdgeon, or Baldpate, is a frequent attendant on the 
Canvas-back, and often profits by this association. The for- 
mer, not being commonly in the habit of diving for subsistence, 
or merely from caprice, watches the motions of its industrious 
neighbor, and as soon as the Canvas-back rises with the favorite 
root on which they both greedily feed, the Baldpate snatches 
the morsel and makes off with his booty. These birds are 
always very alert and lively, feeding and swimming out into 
the ponds and rivers at all hours of the day, but are extremely 
watchful, sheltering in coves and behind the land, and on the 
slightest attempt to steal upon them, immediately row out into 
the stream beyond gunshot, and then only take to wing when 
much disturbed. In Carolina and the West Indies they fre- 
quent the rice-fields in flocks, and in Martinico are said to 
do considerable damage to the crops. When thus feeding in 
company they have a sort of sentinel on the watch. At times 
they keep in covert until twilight, and are then traced by their 
low, guttural, and peculiar whistle, or '7vhew, 'luhew, as well as 
other calls ; and their whistle is frequently imitated with success 
to entice them within gunshot. They feed much in the win- 
ter upon aquatic vegetables, cropping the pond-weed as well as 
other kinds of freshwater plants and seeds, and sometimes 
dive and collect the roots and leaves of the sea-wrack. 
Although generally distributed throughout North America, the 
Baldpate rarely appears on the Atlantic coast excepting in winter, 
when it is found on the shores of the Southern States. It is a 
“tolerably common summer resident ” of Manitoba, writes Ernest 
Thompson, and the bird is well known in Ontario. 
