Ii6 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Examinations of one hundred and twenty-six 

 stomachs of Mallards, made at the Biological 

 Survey, revealed 17 per cent, animal food and 

 83 per cent, vegetable. The most imjiortant items 



Photo by Edward i'U-istrn;r 



FEMALE MALLARD 





of the animal food were dragon-fly nymphs, fly 

 larvae, grasshoppers, beetles, and bugs. Mollusks, 

 earthworms, and crustaceans were found. The 

 principal elements of the vegetable food, as found 

 by the experts of the Biological Survey, were 

 the seeds of the smartweeds, seeds and tubers 

 of pondweed and of sedges. Other items of im- 

 portance were the seeds of wild rice and other 

 grasses, of burr reed, hornwort, water shield and 

 widgeon grass. A great many vegetable sub- 

 stances of less importance were included in the 

 Mallard's diet, of which the following are worthy 

 of note ; wild celery, algae, roots of arrowhead ; 

 fruits, such as grapes, dogwood, sour gum, and 

 bayberries ; and the seeds of such small aquatic 

 plants as millweed, horned pondweed, and mer- 

 maid weed." ( Forbush, in Game Birds, IVild- 

 Fozul and Shore Birds.) 



BLACK DUCK 

 Anas rubripes Brczustcr 



A. O. U. Number 133 Sec Color Plate 12 



Other Names.— Dusky Duck ; Black Mallard ; Dusky 

 Mallard; Ked-legged Duck; Summer Black Duck; 

 Spriug Black Duck. 



General Description. — Length, 22 to 24 inches. 

 Color, dusky-brown. Darker than female Mallard and 

 not so much white in the wing. 



Color. — General fluinagc, dusky-brov.'n, paler below; 

 crown, darker than sides and throat, being quite blackish 

 with pale brown streaks; ground color of neck, grayish- 

 brown with dark streaking ; wing-coverts, dusky-gray, 

 the lesser ones varied with light edges; greater coverts, 

 tipped with black and edging f>urplish-hluc spcculuin; 

 below, the lighter edgings of feathers in excess of 



darker centers ; above, the reverse ; bill, olive ; feet, 

 orange-red with dusky webs; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : On the ground ; a rather 

 large well-made structure of weeds and grass with a 

 deep cup ; lined with down and feathers. Eggs : 6 to 

 12, very pale bufif or pale greenish-buff. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America ; breeds from 

 central Kcewatin and northern Ungava south to north- 

 ern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and southern Mary- 

 land ; winters from Nova Scotia south to southern 

 Louisiana and Colorado; in migration west to Nebraska 

 and central Kansas ; casual in Bermuda ; accidental in 

 Jamaica. 



The Black Duck and the Mallard are in certain 

 ways supplementary each of the other. The 

 former is the common Wild Duck of the eastern 

 half of North America ; the latter, of the western 

 half, though they overlap considerably. They 

 are enough alike in form, size, and habits to be 

 called popularly " Black " Mallard and " Gray " 

 Mallard. There is, nevertheless, a decided dif- 

 ference in teniperatnent. Thotigh the wild Mal- 

 lard is a very shy bird, it soon loses this fear in 

 captivity, as is seen in the fact that it is the pro- 

 genitor of the domesticated Mallard. The Black 

 Duck, imder restraint, remains the same shy, 

 timid skulker it always was. In fact I know of 

 no Duck more implacably wild. 



In the eastern half of the United States it 

 breeds, in suitable localities, in the Middle States 

 and as far north as well up into Labrador. The 

 locations chosen for its nesting are thick, bushy 

 swamps, reedy bogs, the higher edges of 

 meadows, tracts of weeds or low brush on small 

 islands, and the like. As with all Wild Ducks, the 

 nest is hard to discover, except by accidentally 

 flushing the female from the eggs. My first ex- 

 perience was in plodding through the thick of an 

 alder swamp, when a big bird suddenly shot 

 from the ground almost into my face, revealing 

 a dozen large yellowish-white eggs under the 

 vegetation. 



Nesting is quite early in Connecticut, sometimes 



