BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



125 



as this term is sometimes applied to the young of the American Scoter, also, the 

 identity of the birds taken by Mr. Swan is perhaps open to doubt. 



39. Erismatura jamaicensis (Gmel.). 

 Ruddy Duck. Dumb-bird. 



A tran.sient visitor, formerly abundant in autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 

 June 22, 1890, one ad, male 1 taken, Charles River, Mr. Rivet. 



September 30, 186S, thirty seen. Fresh Pond, W, Brewster. 



October 10 — November 8. 

 December 14, 1900, six seen, Fresh Pond, W. Deane. 



Twenty-five or thirty years ago the ' Dumb-bird,' as it was universally called 

 by our local gunners, was by far the most abundant of the water-fowl which 

 visited Fresh, Spy and the Mystic Ponds in autumn. It also alighted rather 

 frequently in Smith's Pond, occasionally in Hardy's Pond, and sometimes in 

 Charles River between Cambridge and Watertown, while on one occasion I found 

 a single bird swimming in a small pond-hole surrounded by bushes in the Brick- 

 yard Swamp. The migration began about the close of September or early in 

 October, and continued late into November, although the bulk of the birds 

 passed between October 15 and November 8. They came into the ponds in the 

 greatest numbers when the weather was clear and frosty, usually at daybreak or 

 shortly afterwards, sometimes singly or in pairs, oftener in bunches of from six 

 or eight to a dozen or fifteen individuals each. At Fresh Pond I have had three 

 or four such flocks in sight at once and have known upwards of fifty birds to be 

 killed in a single morning. The last really heavy flight took place in 1882, when 

 the Ruddy Ducks were almost as numerous as they had been during any of the 

 preceding ten or twelve years. 



Only a very few birds are known to have visited Fresh Pond between 1890 

 and 1899, but in 1900 a good-sized flock appeared on November 17 and remained 

 several weeks, haunting Cambridge Nook, where they were constantly diving 

 and seemed to obtain an abundance of food. Up to December 6 there were 

 from fifteen to seventeen of them, the number varying within these limits from 

 day to day. On December 9 and 10 only five were present. On the 14th 



' No. 45,097, collection of William Brewster. 



