(4) Oidemia americana. 1889. Maine. L. Umbagog. its neck upright. It then shortens its neck and sinks back into the water. The body must be raised by means of the feet for the wings are not opened in the least. The entire action takes only a fraction of a second. One of these large flocks when shot into invariably flies, its members never scattering about and diving. They usually go several miles before realighting; sometimes merely coursing up and down the Lake fifteen or twenty yards above the water; at others, rising high in the air and after wheeling and circling for ten or fifteen minutes at the height of several thousand feet, scaling down again on set wings precisely as they do in coming in to the Lake at early morning. During one of these elevated flights they are continually changing their order, sometimes moving in a dense cluster, sometimes in a V, like Geese, sometimes stretched out in a long line either parallel or at right angles to their course. When they bunch closely together the crowded wings frequently strike one another with a muffled sound like that of a paddle dropped lightly on the water. This may be heard in still weather at a distance of a mile or more and the escaping steam sound when the flock descends is audible at a still greater distance. During these flights they also utter at times their peculiar loud shrill "Cree" This note, repeated incessantly as it frequently is by dozens of birds at a time, produces a jingling medley which at a distance closely resembles that of many sleigh bells and doubtless has given to these birds the appellation of Sleigh Bell Ducks by which they are very generally known to the people of this region. When in the water they are usually silent, but during this tumbling dance they utter the "cree" note and also a medley of low croaking sounds closely resembling those produced by wood frogs in the spring. These two notes are all that I have certainly identified, but when there are Surf Scoters in the flock one often hears their short hoarse quack also. I am not sure that I have heard the "Cree" from a female or young bird, and in fact suspect that it is peculiar to the adult males. These often utter it just after coming up from a dive when wounded. As before stated I know of no instance in which a flock of these birds that has once alighted in the Lake has been driven out of it during the day, but they invariably resume their journey southward soon after dark on the following evening, rising to a great height and making their course long after they are lost to sight in the feeble light by the sleigh bell medley just described. They never apparently attempt to feed in the Lake further than by occasionally sipping the water as they swim, for 70