177 
Quorquedula diseors. 
Maine (Lake Unibagog). 
1873, r 
Sept.14.; A flock of five at the foot of the Rapids under tne 
elm near the Lake House. One vras shot near the Out~ 
lot on the 9th. 
1874, 
Sspt. 3.!; Flock of eight alighted in the Lake near Leonard’s 
Pond and ono v;as killed. 
A 
land. 
iJB, rsh, 
v/ar d s 
flock of eight sitting on a mud bank on Groat Is- 
One which we vTOiUided slightly flov/' off over the 
and dropped in a tiiieket 
flusliod arid shot it. 
of bushes, whore I after¬ 
pond. Shot t-iroe, one 
A flock of six in the first 
an a.dult male i.n fall plumage. A v/oundod one v/ent 
ashore ai-.d hid in tlie grass whore it was caught bjr my 
setter, A"tor I fed taken it from.him it slipped throu¬ 
gh my fingers a,nd took to the v/ater We pursued it in 
a boat, and h 0 ,d groat difficulty in ca,tching it. Al¬ 
though it dove and sv/-am a few feet under './a'er v/hen hard 
pressed, it seemed to rely chiefly on dodgipg, v/hich it 
performed \7ith great skill. Occasionally it quacked 
in feeble tones. Late in the afternoon! a flock of at 
least forty of these Teal passed me as I was Ijeirtglin 
pmy boat at the mouth of Cambridge River. They swept 
along ovor the v/ater in a broad extended front, now rais¬ 
ing, now lov/ering their flight, and disappeared up ri¬ 
ver. A little later we found a third flock swimming 
close to the edge of tho mud in the river. At one mo¬ 
ment they would prosont tho appearance of a long line 
of dusky little forms gliding along close to thJ odr^e 
of ohe mud; next the lino melted out of sight as thpir 
brov/n backs blonded v/ith the shore behind; and shortly 
after would appear again, lengthening and shortening’'as 
they strung out or huddled together. As we paddled to¬ 
wards thorn they paid not tho slightest attention to us 
and v/hen v/e finally stopped, actually sv/rm tov/ards us 
tho foremost eorneing within fifteen pace®. They were 
^ feeding busily, and the dabbling of their bills in tho 
j water produced an uninterrupted smacking sound. Their 
; nocks^v/ere extended along tho surface so that it v/as dif- 
i ficult to make out their forms and they looked precisol 
like lumps of animated mud. Finally getting them v/ell 
j together I killed eleven with my two barrels. The five 
survivors alighted barely more than a gun shot 
: again paddled close to them v/hen they flew and 
at the two hindmost 
ones, killing both. 
away and 
T fired 
