( 4 °) 
an excellent bird for the table. It is wonderfully shy and to 
decoy it successfully one must be very carefully and entirely con¬ 
cealed. 
The Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal both visit Easton’s 
pond,—the former being much the commoner. The beautiful 
Wood Duck, a bird found all over the continent on the fresh 
water, is sometimes seen here. Several other varieties are more 
or less common. Of our sea Ducks, among the commonest and 
best known is the Long-tailed Duck, always called here the Old 
Squaw. It is a handsome black and white bird remarkably swift 
flying. These Ducks are shot at the Dumplings from row boats at 
sun rise when they fly up the bay often in immense flocks, and also at 
sunset when they return. They are very tough, often escaping 
when wounded as they can dive like a fish. Samuels, in his 
“ Birds of New England,” mentions knocking seven out of a flock 
without getting one. 
Then we have several species, commonly called Coots, though 
they are not Coots at all, the true American Coot being a lobe- 
footed bird, which is to be seen on Easton’s pond in small flocks 
in autumn, and, I believe, is never found on salt water. Of these 
so-called Coots however, we have the Surf Duck known as the 
Patch-poll Coot, the American Scoter Duck or Butter-bill 
Coot, and the Velvet Duck—a large, handsome species, called, 
from the white patch on its wings, the White-winged Coot. 
Some of these Coots sometimes collect in large masses in the 
shoal water at Brenton’s Reef, or oft' Easton’s Point. Rare spe¬ 
cies are occasionally found here. The celebrated Eider Duck has 
been shot, as well as the Canvass-back and Red-head, and the 
rare King Eider has been obtained this winter up the bay. 
Wild Geese are often seen passing over, uttering their loud 
“ honking ” cries—always flying in the shape of the letter V, with 
one or two old ganders leading them. Their migrations extend 
to the furthest northern regions, and flocks have been seen within 
the Arctic circle, still pursuing their way towards the pole. 
They hardly ever stop here, but are known to have done so on a 
few occasions. They are frequently domesticated, and I have 
seen a large flock of them which had become very tame. The 
Brant Goose is here of extremely rare occurrence. 
