Il8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The above records are all that I am able to give for the Cambridge Region, 

 to which, indeed, the Ring-necked Duck appears to be nearly if not quite as 

 infrequent a visitor as is the Canvas-back. 



32. Clangula clangula americana (Bonap.). 

 American Golden-eye. Whistler. 



Rather common transient visitor to our larger ponds, and abundant winter resident on 

 Charles River Basin. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



October 27, 1868, small flock seen, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



November 1 5 — April i . 

 April 29, 1898, one seen (Concord), R. A. Gilbert. 



July 26, 1889, one seen diving. Back Bay Basin, W. Brewster. 



Whistlers have always been common in late autumn and winter in the 

 Back Bay Basin. They were formerly much disturbed by sportsmen and espe- 

 cially by the draw-tender of West Boston Bridge who kept a grass-trimmed gun- 

 ning-float in constant readiness for the pursuit of these and other water-fowl. 

 In consequence of this persecution the visits of the Whistlers became less and 

 less frequent as the years went by. About 1 874, however, a horse was badly 

 frightened by a shot fired near the Milldam by some careless gunner, and soon 

 afterwards a law was passed prohibiting all shooting on the Basin. 



During the next ten or fifteen years the numbers of the Whistlers which 

 resorted to the Back Bay Basin remained about the same, but with each succes- 

 sive season the birds came oftener and stayed longer. It was exceptional to 

 note more than fifteen or twenty at any one time prior to 1889, but on Decem- 

 ber 31 of that year I counted nearly one hundred. After this their numbers 

 steadily increased, imtil in January, 1897, from five or six hundred to a thousand 

 birds might be frequently seen scattered over the sheet of water lying between 

 Harvard and West Boston Bridges. During the years 1S97, 1898 and 1899 a 

 considerable portion of the muddy flats which constituted the favorite feeding 

 grounds of the Whistlers was removed by dredging, and since then the birds 

 have not reappeared in anything like the numbers that were present in 1897. 

 They often spend the entire day in the Basin, but invariably leave it a little 

 before sunset, flying off in the direction of Boston Harbor and returning early 

 the next morning. They evidently find an abimdance of food, for they are 



