BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



"5 



North America, and the hue of migration followed by the birds which winter in 

 the Middle and South Atlantic States is believed to extend directly from the 

 Great Lakes to Chesapeake Bay and more southern waters. Hence it is not sur- 

 prising that the species is, and apparently always has been, but little more than 

 a chance straggler to New England. Of its occurrence in the Cambridge Region 

 I can give but three records. The first of these was originally mentioned, many 

 years ago, in the 'Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,' in the 

 following words : " Dr. S. Cabot, Jr., stated that he had recently received a 

 pair of canvass-back ducks, shot near Newburyport. He had known only one 

 previous instance of these birds being taken in this vicinity, to wit, at Fresh 

 Pond, by Capt. N.J. Wyeth." ' 



The second record relates to a solitary bird which visited Fresh Pond in the 

 autumn of 1903, remaining there nearly two weeks. It was first noted by Mr. 

 Harold Bowditch and Mr. Richard S. Eustis on November 18. Mr. Walter 

 Deane and I had an e.xcellent view of it on the afternoon of November 30, the 

 latest date on which it is known to have been seen by any one. We found it 

 swimming and diving within a few yards of shore, in a sheltered cove, in com- 

 pany with two Ring-necked Ducks and six Coots {Fiilica). Through our field- 

 glasses, at a distance of less than one hundred yards, we could distinctly make 

 out the characteristic shape and proportions of the head and bill of the Canvas- 

 back as well as the general coloring of its plumage which was that of a female. 

 The bird for a time was unaware of our presence (we were concealed behind a 

 bank) and quite at its ease, but upon discovering us it swam directly out into the 

 pond, with the Coots and Ring-necks following in its wake. On reaching a safe 

 distance from land it buried its head in the feathers of the back and, for the 

 next half hour or more, remained apparently sound asleep, its body slowly 

 revolving, as well as drifting, under the influence of a light breeze. The Ring- 

 necks, behaving in a similar manner, kept it close company, but the Coots 

 returned to the shallow water near shore soon after we had left the neighbor- 

 hood of the cove. 



The third record comes to my knowledge just in time to be inserted in the 

 present connection. It concerns a Canvas-back which was noted in Fresh Pond 

 by the Rev. H. G. Wright on December 23, 1905, and which was afterwards 

 seen there almost daily up to January 8, 1906, (the date of the present writing). 

 Mr. Walter Deane had a good view of the bird on December 31, 1905. He tells 

 me that it was a male in fully adult plumage. 



' [S. Cabot,] Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, II, 1846, 89. 



