jBtote^ from JTielti ant) ^tuDp 



Ducks Increasing 



During the past winter, while cruising 

 along the Florida coast in the performance 

 of duty as inspector of lighthouses, I 

 was impressed by the great numbers of 

 Ducks seen in many places. In the months 

 of January, February and March, 1910, 

 at various times, I saw in Pensacola Bay, 

 St. Andrew's Bay, St. George Sound, 

 Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Key 

 Biscayne Bay, and several other regions 

 along the coast, flocks of Ducks that were 

 remarkable for numbers. In Tampa Bay 

 and in the upper end of Key Biscayne 

 Bay, north of Miami, the flocks seen were 

 really enormous, extending sometimes 

 two or three miles along the surface of the 

 water, and numbering tens of thousands 

 of individuals, swimming and feeding close 

 together. 



I cruised in these same waters the winter 

 before and saw thousands of Ducks, but 

 the greater numbers this past season was 

 very noticeable. Residents, mostly light- 

 house keepers and watermen, with whom 

 I talked at all places visited, agreed that 

 they had never before seen such huge 

 flocks in their neighborhood. 



For the most part these were Blue- 

 bills (Lesser Scaup), but I saw at different 

 times and places, generally associated 

 with the Bluebills, some Teal, Ring- 

 necked Ducks, Canvasbacks, and the 

 resident Florida Ducks. The Scaup Ducks 

 are known locally in Florida as 'Raft 

 Ducks, but why I am unable to say. They 

 swim in very compact masses, and a flock 

 of them some distance away looks some- 

 what like a large raft of logs bound to- 

 gether to be towed to a sawmill, and per- 

 haps the resemblance suggests the name. 



The lateness of the season that some 

 of these Ducks remain in Florida is note- 

 worthy. Voyaging south from Pensacola 

 in April, I saw in Choctawhatchie Bay, 

 St. Joseph's Bay, and in Apalachee Bay, 

 near St. Mark's, small groups ()f Lesser 



(I 



Scaups, aggregating from twenty or thirty 

 to as many as one hundred at each place 

 named. These may have been stragglers, 

 left behind by the spring migration, but 

 April II, in the western end of Apalachi- 

 cola Bay, I saw the same species in such 

 numbers that the assumption that they 

 were stragglers is unreasonable. I ob- 

 served, a few miles apart, three separate 

 flocks or "rafts" of these birds feeding 

 in shoal water, and each flock contained 

 from two thousand to three thousand 

 individuals at the very lowest estimate. — 

 F. M. Bennett, Commander, U. S. Navy, 

 Key West, Fla. 



The Crackle in Virginia 



In the center of the town of Pulaski, 

 \'irginia, there is a very beautiful lawn 

 enclosed by a stone wall and shaded by a 

 thick grove of maple and cottonwood 

 trees, and in the center of this enclosure 

 is located Maple Shade Inn. But the 

 visitors to the grove are more interesting 

 in many respects than the visitors to the 

 hotel, and especially is this true of the 

 Grackle {Quiscalus quiscula), a half dozen 

 pairs of these birds finding asylum here 

 each season for the raising of their young. 



But after the young ones are strong 

 enough to fly well, a change begins to take 

 place, and the birds all leave the grove 

 early in the morning and return about 

 sundown with increased numbers. This 

 is kept up for many weeks until their 

 numbers reach over a thousand. In 

 leaving the grove in the morning, the 

 greater part of the flock goes together 

 and in a northeast direction, from which 

 they never vary. On their return in the 

 evening, the flock is very much more 

 broken up into smaller flocks, but always 

 returning by the same route. I have seen 

 these birds eating dogwood berries in the 

 woods four miles directly east of this place. 

 Following the greater arc of the circle 

 from east to northwest, there are moun- 



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