Oidenia ainericana 
1889. Maine. 
t. Umbapog. 
I have never seen one dive excepting when wounded. • In short it; 
is evident that they alight merely to rest for a day before ac¬ 
complishing the final stage of their iournaey to the sea. They 
appear much oftner during clear than sto 
is doubtless one of the ^stopping places 
gration. 
These observations, however, do not apply.to wounded birds 
of Y/hich a number escape the hunters and remain in the Lake urr-.il 
their wings are healed or until the water freezes and they perish. 
Such wounded birds are often seen near shore about rocky points 
or even along the edge of the marsh grass which lines the deeper 
coves. They evidently try to obtain food both in this sedge an o 
by diving in shallow water, but T doubt if they succeed, for sev¬ 
eral which I killed this autumn after seeing them in cet-am plac¬ 
es daily for a week or two at a time proved to be much emaciated 
and their c ops and stomachs contained nothing but a little grav¬ 
el. 
A wounded Scorer is not ordinarily a difficult bird to se¬ 
cure if the surface of the Lake is calm, for it does not go as 
fur under water or double as often as many of the other diving 
Ducks, while upon coming to the surface it always shows the en¬ 
tire head and usually most of the neck also, as well as frequent¬ 
ly portions of the back. If the water is rough, however, it fre¬ 
quently escapes. I have several times seen a young bird make very 
protracted dives in deep water remaining under for nearly a min¬ 
ute at a time, but coming up in almost precisely the same spot.On 
one such occasion the bird after being nearly caught seemed to 
suddenly learn wisdom by experience, for it changed its tactics 
and by a succession of long horizontal dives gave us a chase of 
fully a mile, 'mit it was finally killed. A wounded bird coming to 
the surface after a long dive usually makes a rather lour gasping 
sound as it rakes in air for a fresh aive. 
7/ 
