246 THE Birps Asout Us. 
nested much southward of the present limits of their 
migrations in spring. Indefinite references to “ wild 
fowl” in summer in old colonial records and travel- 
lers’ journals and some manuscript records, seem 
to imply that many ducks were to be seen about our 
large watercourses during what is now their nesting 
season. 
The single duck that may be said to be a fixed 
resident is the Wood-duck, and it is highly probable 
that these birds were once extremely abundant and 
went about in flocks. The mallard and black duck, 
the gadwall and possibly the teal were resident to 

Golden-eyed Duck. 
some extent in the seventeenth century, and the first 
two named are still found breeding south of Canada. 
That some non-mated ducks are always about, even in 
summer, is unquestionable. It occasionally happens 
that long after the migratory ducks have gone north, 
