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MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



large flock of Black Ducks. They are so closely packed together that at 

 a distance the uninitiated refuses to believe they are birds and thinks the dark 

 masses are old timbers from a wreck washed up on the beach. Although I 

 have frequently found them there on calm days, the largest flocks are to be 

 looked for in windy weather. Thus on February 25th, 190 1, I have noted 500 

 on Ipswich Beach in a fierce wind. On March loth, 1901, with Mr. H. M. 

 Spelman, I spent some time lying behind a sand dune vainly trying to count a 

 mass of these dark birds on the beach, where they were resting from battling 

 with the waves. The wind was strong from the east, and the surf high. We 

 finally concluded that there were about 600 but I think our estimate was con- 

 servative. On April 5th, 1903, Mr. R. S. Eustis and Mr. Harold Bowditch 

 estimated the number in a flock of Black Ducks on Ipswich Beach to be at 

 least 2000. 



At other times. Black Ducks may be seen bedded in great flocks from two 

 or three hundred yards to half a mile off the beach. On the beach they stand 

 on one or both legs or squat with body resting on the sand, and sleep with head 

 thrust down in front in the feathers of the breast, or buried behind in the 

 scapulars. On the water a few in a flock are often asleep, but the sleepiest set 

 I ever saw was a flock of 600 or more spread outside the beach in a line about 

 half a mile long. Nearly all were asleep with heads tucked in the back, and in 

 this headless condition they looked like a herd of seals. They were all turned 

 breast to the slight breeze and they apparently did not drift. One or two here 

 and there, however, had their heads up, and every now and then one would 

 stretch by sitting up and flapping its wings. This was a nearly calm, warm, 

 misty morning at 6.30, on April 8th, 1904. When the ponds first freeze, the 

 Black Duck may be seen in large numbers sitting on the ice. Both from the 

 water, and from ice or the sand beach, Black Ducks take flight by a vigorous 

 bound into the air (see page 23) ; no shelldrake floppings for them, no digging 

 of toenails into the sand ! Their powerful wings are sufficient. 



The flight of the Black Duck is swift and direct and the gunner who aims 

 at the first Duck in a line of ten is lucky if he drops the last bird. The roar of 

 wings when a large flock rises, is loud, and the whistle of wings as they fly is 

 keen and breezy, very different from the whistle of the Golden-eye, and not as 

 loud. 



Dr. J. C. Phillips, who has carefully watched the movements of waterfowl 

 at Wenham Lake for a number of years, has kindly written out for me the 

 following observations on the Black Duck. 



" It has always seemed to me that there were three more or less 

 distinct flights of Black Ducks observed here at the pond. The outside dates 

 for these three flights are about as follows : September 14th to October sth ; 



