merganser americanus. Lake Umbagog, Me. Sept. & Oct. 1893. Oct. 11 A large flock of Sheldrake at Moon Point. Counted 42 and there were eight or ten more. Some were swimming about & others sitting on the Rock. It is a curious fact that Sheldrakes in common with many other Ducks, are much less afraid of a sail boat than of a boat without a sail. These birds allowed me to sail within less than 100 yds. before throwing any alarm. I noticed that those on the beach stood much in the attitude of the tree Anatinae; & with bodies nearly horizontal. They also walked with the same slow, waddling gait. A Sheldrake on the water is a reddish-brown bird with his body deeply sunk back, and fine crest which is nearly always raised. The neck is usually held well up. All the large birds about the foothill are marked with Sheldrake scimitar which is fluid & chalky white & heads are a hatch as large as one hand. Lake Umbagog, Me. Sept. & Oct. 1893. Oct. 12 A flock of seven Sheldrakes in a rocky cove near camp. I watched them for half an hour or more as they swam about, fished, climbed on the rocks & perched their feathers & dove in the sun and repeatedly thrusting the water with their wings. I watched the last performance closely many times & satisfied myself that it was done partly in play & partly to wash out the filth which they drew carefully in the waters. Certainly they are not diving fish in them as a winter in N.E. S. has suggested. Sometimes the bird would merely beat the water violently with its wings thereby raising most of its body above the surface but often two birds would flap off over the surface one apparently pursuing the other each taking a succession of short dives & during the flapping periods raising its body out of water yet keeping horizontal with the surface.