40 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



and aquatic plants, in which the birds may hide. During the dry season 

 at Lake Bacuranao, not far cast of Havana, they are hunted with dogs 

 which are taught to catch the birds, loath to leave their haunts even when 

 low water strands the floating vegetation which gives such excellent refuge 

 when well afloat. 



I remember one afternoon in April, 191 5, the train bound for Guane 

 stopped for repairs not far from Consolacion del Sur, and the long delay 

 allowed me adequate opportunity to watch a pair of Agosteros swimming 

 about in a tiny pond in a nearby pasture, which was certainly less than 

 an acre in extent. Never before or since have I seen Masked Ducks so 

 confiding, and since that time I never passed that little pond on many 

 journeys to and fro without hope of a repetition of this unique opportunity, 

 but so far no second chance has been vouchsafed. I have seen Masked 

 Ducks very occasionally in the ponds in the Cienaga, but all of the large 

 series which we have in the Museum of Comparative Zoology was got 

 from the two lakes Ariguanabo and Bacuranao. It is very unfortunate 

 that it is about these two localities that the mongoose now fairly swarms. 

 Introduced from Jamaica to Havana many years ago, it never has spread 

 through Cuba with that rapidity which was so noteworthy elsewhere in 

 the Antilles. The mongoose is no swimmer, but it creeps about the 

 floating islands of willows and plays havoc with many Ducks' nests. 



Masked Ducks when sent to market are highly prized, but of course 

 only a few find their way to the stalls of the game-sellers each year. The 

 closed season on game, in Havana and Matanzas Provinces especially, 

 is well enforced, the Rural Guards being entirely efficient in these populous 

 portions of the Island. 



During our visit to the Lake in 1920 Lord William Percy, my 

 companion, made extensive notes, covering about all the local information 

 obtainable, from which he has kindly extracted the following: 



"According to local information, the Masked Ducks are much less 

 secretive in late summer and autumn when the Lake is higher and provides 

 less cover from view; in such conditions we were told that the Masked 

 Ducks flew a good deal of their own accord, especially early and late in 

 the day, and experience elsewhere with these birds did not suggest that 

 they were difficult to flush, though they rarely flew farther than the nearest 

 patch of cover. On the other hand local hunters agreed that, while the 

 Masked Ducks took to wing quite frequently, the Ruddy Ducks never 

 did so under any circumstances. This, if true, is remarkable, but it is 

 possible that the Cuban race, being entirely stationary, may have developed 

 a more skulking habit than that of the migratory race in Canada and the 

 United States. (It certainly is a fact that the Erismaturas of the high 

 Andean lakes are so unwilling to fly as to give an impression of incapacity 



