74 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



that occurred in the fall of 1904, when nineteen were shot 

 October 23 at Hood's Pond, four at Wenham Lake, one or 

 two at Chebacco Lake and seven in the creeks near Ipswich 

 Beach, all in Essex County, Mass. Mr. J. H. Hardy counted 

 nearly one hundred Mallards in the Boston market, sent there 

 from Essex County during that week. Mr. John M. Winslow 

 of Nantucket says that a number of Mallards were killed 

 there about 1907. One man killed eighteen. A good many 

 were taken at Tuckernuck. At one stand twenty were killed 

 in a season. Mr. B. T. Mosely of Newburyport says that 

 Mallards have remained about the same there for the last 

 ten or fifteen years; ten or twelve birds killed every year. 



The general migratory movement of the Mallard is north 

 and south, with an easterly trend. It is evident that in 

 former times, when the birds were so very plentiful in Florida 

 and the south Atlantic States, a great migration moved to 

 the southeast, and they are still numerous in some portions 

 of the Carolinas. 



The Mallard is not known to breed in Massachusetts, 

 although it still breeds in New York State. It has been 

 reported several times as breeding in Connecticut since spring 

 shooting was prohibited there, but I am not aware that any 

 nest has been found, and if Mallards are breeding there it is 

 quite likely that they are birds that have escaped from con- 

 finement, as a number of people are breeding wild Mallards 

 in Massachusetts and Connecticut. 



The Mallard is quite omnivorous in regard to its food. 

 The animal food consists of small frogs, tadpoles, toads, liz- 

 ards, newts, small fish, fish fry, snails, mussels, leeches, earth- 

 worms, mice and similar small game that it finds about the 

 ponds and in the edges of the woods. Its vegetable food 

 includes grass, many species of seeds and aquatic plants, 

 grains, nuts, acorns, fruits, etc. It is particularly fond of 

 wild rice. In the south the Mallard is one of the friends of 

 the rice farmer, as it destroys the scattered rice or volunteer 

 rice of the field, which, if left to grow, would greatly reduce 

 the value of the crop. It is serviceable to the southern 

 people in another way, as it feeds very largely upon craj-fish. 



