JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNlTHOLOCilCAT, SOCIETY. 71 



and the like. I had seen coots and whistlers rise U]) in the water 

 and shake their winj^s ont, always at long range, but here was a 

 nearer view. He would make a sudden powerful backward stroke 

 with his paddles, reverse his engines as quickly, and with the clieck 

 come up on his sternpost to applaud himself vigorously with his 

 wings. His paddle strokes were made sidewise instead of deep 

 down like those of most fresh water fowl, but whether the shallow- 

 ness of his pond had anything to do with this or not I am unable to 

 say. When under water the strokes were made straight backward, 

 and go! No fresh water duck that I have ever seen in action could 

 compare with him for speed or quickness in the water, but ashore he 

 was the clumsiest of waddlers. 



He seemed to much enjoy having me fight with him and shake 

 my fingers in his face, especially below the water when he swam. 

 He never refused a challenge and would bite as long as my fingers 

 held out. He was a very silent bird; the only sound I heard him 

 make was a low, weak, nearly inaudible hissing, with open mouth 

 or softly snapping bill, when excited; never a whistle of any kind. 



During all this time he made no attempt at flight. His wings 

 seemed in good order, with no apparent trouble in them. After six 

 weeks of promising convalescence, during which I grew much 

 attached to him, he suddenly refused to eat and sat all the time 

 motionless upon his pond's edge. Nothing would tempt him. I 

 thought perhaps the heat was too much for him, but he grew stead- 

 ily worse, and only when he had died did I discover a shothole in 

 his body under the breast feathers, where gangrene had done its 

 work. 



I especially regretted his death because a chance was presented 

 to study his plumage changes, just beginning. When he came to 

 me he was in the perfection of his wedding clothes (May 27), and 

 at his death (July 7) he had begun to show brown tips and edges 

 on the interscapulars and specklings of rusty at the base of the bill 

 and on the cheeks. 



But so pass our dreams! "Jerry" is now diving for mussels 

 and shucking his own clams upon the river Styx. L,et us hope 

 he has learned wisdom by past experience, for if Charon is like the 

 boatmen of Casco Bay he probably invested in an automatic shot- 

 gun at the same time when, to keep up with the nuirch of progress, 

 he fitted his ferryboat with a gasolene motor. 



