. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions, or, The Swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America [microform] : with accounts of their habits, nesting, migrations, and dispersions, together with descriptions of the adults and young, and keys for the ready identification of the species : a book for the sportsman, and for those desirous of knowing how to distinguish these web-footed birds and to learn their ways in their native wilds. Waterfowl; Game and game-birds; Gibier d'eau; Gibier. M 1 Mt 11V ' M ,i 1 •! i I t ,,i ' 1 j i. STELLER'S DUCK. 'VUrS very beautiful bird i
. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions, or, The Swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America [microform] : with accounts of their habits, nesting, migrations, and dispersions, together with descriptions of the adults and young, and keys for the ready identification of the species : a book for the sportsman, and for those desirous of knowing how to distinguish these web-footed birds and to learn their ways in their native wilds. Waterfowl; Game and game-birds; Gibier d'eau; Gibier. M 1 Mt 11V ' M ,i 1 •! i I t ,,i ' 1 j i. STELLER'S DUCK. 'VUrS very beautiful bird is only found within our limits, on the coasts and islands of liehring Sea; it also breeds along the northern shores of Siberia, and from there occasionally straggles into Russia and northern Fuiroj^e. About all we know of it is derived from the accounts of the few natiu-alists who have visited its habitat. Xelson says he foiuul it rather numerous in the quiet, sheltered bays and fjords of the Aleutian Islands, where, however, it was very shy. The residents told him the s])ecies was abundant in winter in the bays not ice-bound, and many birds were killed for food. It is found at Kadiak and Sauk Island, near the eastern end of the Aleutian chain, on the Shumagin Group, and also in great flocks on the north coast of the Alaskan Peninsula. Dall found it associating with the King Eider in winter. The mating season begins in May, and the nest is placed between tussocks of grass and lined with the same material, and concealed by long, overhanging grasses. In the nest found there was a single e^g, which was a pale grayish green color. It is said that if a nest is visited the bird will abandon it at once. This Duck seems to be irregular in its movements and does not always appear at the same place at stated periods. Thus in ]\Iay, 1872, it was very abundant at Unalaska together with the Pacific Eider, but in Alay, 1873, though the season was later, not a single member of either specie
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgameandgamebirds
