22 KORTH AMERICAN DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 



Heron Lake, Minn., April 5 (earliest, March 20, 1889). On March 28, 

 1877, young-, a week old, were found in central Florida. Eg-gs have 

 been taken on April 20 in Illinois and on April 29 in .southern 

 Ontario. 



Fall migration. — The species arrives in the valley of Mexico in 

 October and in southern California in November. Many j^ears' obser- 

 vations at Alexandria, Va., fix the averag-e date of arrival there as 

 October 26, and November 22 as the average date when the hooded 

 merganser becomes common. The avei-age date when the last left 

 Montreal was October 29; southern Minnesota, November 10, and 

 central Iowa, November 22. 



Mergus albellus Linn. Smew. 



This is an Old World duck which has been taken once as an acci- 

 dental visitant to North America. The l)asis for its inclusion in the 

 list is a single specimen, an adult female, now in the British Museum, 

 which was purchased from the Hudson Ba}' Company (Cat. Birds Brit. 

 Mus., XXVII, p. 468, 1895). There is no evidence as to the locality 

 of its capture. 



Anas boschas Linn. Mallard. 



Breeding range. — The northern half of the United States west of 

 Pennsylvania, and the whole of Canada west of Hudson Bay, consti- 

 tute the principal breeding range in the Western Hemisphere of the 

 mallard— the commonest duck on the North American continent and 

 probal)Iy in the world. In eastern North America the place of the 

 mallard is taken by the black duck, and the former is rather rare, 

 though a few breed in eastern Ontario about Lake Erie, locally in 

 western New York, and south to Maryland. Though unknown as a 

 breeder on the mainland east of Hudson Bay, the mallard is rather 

 common in Greenland, ])reeding north to Godthaab and Angmagsalik 

 and wandering to Upernavik. Throughout New England and the 

 Maritime Provinces it is a rare migrant, and while some of the records 

 of its breeding in these districts may be correct, it is no more than a 

 casual summer resident. 



In the interior the breeding range extends regularly south to lati- 

 tude 41^^ and a few breed south to southern Indiana, southern Illinois, 

 central Missouri, and southern Kansas. The breeding range bends 

 south in the Rock}' Mountains to southern New Mexico and on the 

 Pacific coast to Lower California (San Pedro Martir Mountains). 



The breeding range extends north to Fort Churchill, to the Arctic 

 coast in the Mackenzie Valley, and to Kotzebue Sound and the Fur 

 Seal Islands in Alaska. 



The mallard is one of the earliest birds to breed. The nesting sea- 

 son extends from early April in southern California and the first week 



