(2) Oidemia americana. 1889. Maine. I. Umbagog. up and down the Lake several times as if to inspect it thoroughly before making up their minds to alight. As on former years, they invariably settled first on one of four places, although there seemed to be no reason why they should prefer these to the hundreds of other spots which the broad sheet of water offered. The fact that the single birds and little parties of three or four which occasionally came into the Lake were quite as apt to alight in one place as another leads me to conclude that the larger flocks are led by old birds which have visited the Lake before during their migrations and which have regular places for alighting. Fully two thirds of these large flocks settled either at the lower end of the Lake between Great Island and Lakeside or on the upper stretch near the mouth of B Cove, the third choice being the stretch just above the narrows and the fourth choice the region about the outlet. After alighting the flocks usually remained on the water for half an hour or more, then taking wing they would fly up and down the Lake a number of times, sometimes rising high in the air, but always, unless shot at, returning and alighting again near the place whence they started. If not disturbed they would take these flights at regular intervals during the entire day. If shot at a flock would usually alight at a distance of a mile or more after flying about for sometime, frequently rising to the height of one thousand feet or more and sometimes going off to the southward nearly or quite out of sight. In no instance either this year or in former years have I known a flock to be driven out of the Lake however much it was persecuted, but a large flock often breaks up into several small flocks after having been repeatedly shot into. The large flocks always alight in deep water out of gun-shot of the shore. Single birds, pairs and little parties of three or four are, however, frequently found close in shore in the coves as well as sometimes in the Cambridge and Androscoggin rivers. After alighting, large flocks usually move steadily, but very slowly in one direction for half a mile or more before taking wing. They swim in a long line or in a short straight bar composed of four or five ranks. At a distance a flock in the latter order closely resembles a floating log. In the good old times when Black Ducks, Wood Ducks, Teal, etc., were a hundred fold more numerous at Umbagog than they are now no one thought of shooting Coots except perhaps occasionally for their feathers or in mere wanton curiosity to see how many could be killed at one discharge into a crowded flock. But now they are hunted eagerly by every one and they are getting shyer every year. A large flock will seldom allow an open boat to come nearer than sixty or seventy yards, but a boat covered with grass or bushes and skillfully handled can often be paddled within close gun-shot. Curiously 68