Part 9

{hyperborea {White goose {From Southern Chen { {(large) {California north. { {rossi {Ross' goose {From Mexico {Small white goose {north.

Anser albifrons gambeli {White-fronted {From Mexico {goose {north. {Gray goose {

{Fulvous tree duck {From Central Dendrocygna fulva {Mexican tree duck {California south {Cavalier {through Mexico. {Breeds from Central {California to {Central Mexico.

{canadensis {Canada goose {From central { {Honker {Mexico north. { {canadensis Hutchins' goose From Southern {hutchinsii California north. { {canadensis White-cheeked {Inland plains from Branta {occidentalis goose {Central California { {north. { {canadensis {Black brant {From Southern {minima {Cackling goose {California north. { {nigricans Black sea brant {On certain bays {from Magdalena, {Lower California {north.

Philacte canagica Emperor goose {A rare visitor {south of Humboldt {Bay, California

Subfamily, CYGNINAE

{columbianus Whistling swan {From Oregon north. Olor { {Rarely as far { {south as Central { {California. { {buccinator Trumpeter swan From Southern { California north.

THE WATERFOWL

The great variety of the waterfowl of the Pacific Coast, the wonderful numbers in which they are found and the excellent shooting they afford, forms a subject, which, to do it justice, would require the space of an ordinary volume.

With the exception of the Gulf tier of the Southern states, waterfowl on the Atlantic Coast are but birds of passage, tarrying for a time on their way to milder winter quarters; tourists loitering for a day or two at attractive by-stations as they wing their way south in the fall and again on their return north in the spring. They are leaving the isolation of the far north or the mountain lakes and marshes where they spent the summer rearing their young and they are seeking more favorable feeding grounds in the milder climate of the South, where animal and vegetable life is not in the state of hibernation which prevents it from furnishing them with an abundance of food during their southern sojourn.

Over the larger portion of our hunting grounds what is the beginning of the calendar year is in fact the beginning of our spring. When the frost king lays his hand upon all vegetable and insect life in the East, spreading his white shroud over field and pasture and breaking with his icy sleet from the vine and the brush their clinging leaves; when from the trees have fallen the last vestige of their autumnal crowns of gold and crimson; when the last flower has shed its petals; when the last hum of insect is heard and the last song of bird has died away on the southern horizon--'tis then the early rains of the Coast start the new sown grain in the fields, give life again to the grasses of the plains, carpet the foothills and the valleys with the gold and purple and crimson of innumerable flowers, and our veritable spring commences.

With us, therefore, waterfowl are not passing pilgrims, tarrying for a few days only as they rest and feed on their way to the open waters and green pastures in which they intend to pass those months marked winter on the calendar of the year. They are not mere hurrying flocks alighting now and again as they wing their way back to their breeding grounds in the spring But ours is the Mecca to which they journey; ours the feeding grounds on which they assemble from the lakes and marshes of the Arctic; from the whole chain of the Aleutian Islands; from the inland seas of British Columbia and from the mountain lakes of our own Sierras from Washington to Mexico. Here on the bays, estuaries and marshes of the coast and the lakes and ponds of the valleys, throughout the whole length of these hunting grounds, countless millions of these birds have found their winter feeding grounds for unnumbered ages. No cold, no ice, no snow, no howling blizzards to stop them in their search for food or disturb their midday rest upon our quiet waters. In warmth they feed upon the tender shoots of the young grasses that fringe their watery haunts or bask in sunshine on the sandy shores.

It is the popular impression that all ducks breed in the far north and migrate from there south. One has only to shoot on the lakes of Mexico to learn how erroneous this impression is, for one will meet varieties quite common there that rarely if ever reach the southern boundaries of the United States.

The masked duck (=Nomonyx dominicus=) is a purely southern species reaching Mexico only in its breeding season. The three species of the Mexican tree duck, quite common in that country, come but little into the United States. One of these, the black-bellied tree duck (=Dendrocygna autumnalis=) migrates to some little extent into Texas and to less extent into New Mexico and Arizona. The fulvous tree duck (=Dendrocygna fulva=) extends its migrations still farther north, breeding to considerable extent in Arizona and southern California, but rarely seen as far north as the center of the state. The other species of the genus (=Dendrocygna elegans=), for which I know no English name, is even rare as far south as southern Jalisco. The cinnamon teal is a southern duck, breeding in Arizona, Texas and southern California but so rarely seen north of San Francisco that a gentleman who had killed a straggler near Marysville, when showing it to me, said that he couldn't find a man in the town who could tell him what it was. Yet the cinnamon teal is very common in Mexico and Arizona and quite plentiful in southern California in the spring, before the flocks break up and the birds seek their nesting places.

Northern bred ducks and purely northern species visit us in great numbers during the winter months, and to these must be added the vast number of these birds that breed in the mountains throughout our hunting grounds.

The ornithologist divides the ducks into two subfamilies; the fresh-water ducks forming the subfamily, =Anatinae=, and the salt-water ducks the subfamily, =Fullgilinae=. These two families can easily be distinguished by their feet. If a salt-water duck, the hind toe will be found to have a small web or flap on the under side, but if the bird belongs to the fresh-water group, the toe will be as clean as any land bird.

THE MALLARD

(Anas boschas)

The mallard is possibly the best known duck in America, it being found in greater or less numbers everywhere from the Arctic to Central America. It is a resident species throughout the Pacific Coast, breeding on the mountain lakes and streams from Mexico to Alaska, and even to a considerable extent on the lower marshes of California, Oregon and Washington. On the fresh water ponds and overflows they congregate in great numbers during the winter months and a bag limit of twenty is no uncommon thing. Like all of the fresh-water ducks of this Coast, they, too, are often found in considerable numbers on the tide lands and salt marshes.

The mallard of the Pacific Coast can hardly be said to be a migratory duck, for it breeds from Mexico north. Its migrations consisting more of altitudinal movements than of longitudinal. While it breeds on the mountain lakes of Mexico, it is rarely seen in the higher altitudes during the winter months.

Hybrids between the mallard and the pin-tail and the mallard and the widgeon have been occasionally met with on the marshes of the Coast. This is most likely caused by the mating of cripples that had not the strength to make the flight to their usual breeding grounds.

=Color=--Male--Head and neck, dark green with a metallic luster; white ring around the neck at the bottom of the green; back, gray; breast, chestnut brown; under parts dirty white; tail, black with two feathers curled upwards; speculum, (see diagram) purple, bordered with black and white.

Female--Head, dark buff; breast, lighter buff with brown mottlings; legs, orange colored; speculum same as the male; bill, yellow, blotched with brown.

=Nest and Eggs=--The nest is placed on the ground and lined with grass, feathers and down. The eggs number eight to a dozen and are of a greenish tinge.

=Measurements=--Male--Total length, from 20 to 25 inches; wing, 10 to 12 inches; bill, 2-1/2 inches.

Female--Total length, from 18 to 20 inches; wing, 9 to 10 inches; bill, 2 to 2-1/4 inches.

THE GADWALL

(Anas strepera)