RIVER DUCKS 93 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America, breeding from Florida to Hudson 

 Bay ; winters from Virginia southwards to Central America and Cuba. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; summer resident, (Johnson). Aroos- 

 took; rare but generally locally distributed summer resident, (Knight). 

 Cumberland; common, (Mead); rather common transient, a few remain 

 through summer, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 31). Franklin ; rare summer resident, 

 (Richards). Hancock; rare local summer resident, (Knight). Kennebec; 

 common, (Dill). Knox; summer, (Rackliff). Oxford; breeds commonly, 

 (Nash). Penobscot; locally distributed summer resident, becoming far too 

 rare of late years, (Knight). Piscataquis; common, breeds, (Homer). Sag- 

 adahoc; quite common in fall, (Spinney). Somerset; rare summer resident, 

 common migrant, (Morrell). Waldo; rare migrant, (Knight). Washing- 

 ton; common, (Boardman). York; migrant, possibly a few breed, (Adams). 



Were these birds able to talk they might truthfully say 

 "Morituri salutamus", for though formerly common about 

 many ponds, lakes and rivers of Maine from spring to fall, 

 and most certainly breeding in every county in the State, this 

 species has become so reduced in numbers that at present it is 

 only a rare local breeding bird. Along the coast where it 

 formerly occurred generally in spring and fall it is now much 

 rarer at these seasons. It seems only a question of time when 

 the Wood Duck will have followed the Great Auk, Labrador 

 Duck and others to the "land of extinction". At present they 

 still occur in decimated numbers from April to late November, 

 and scattered pair remain to nest near some isolated pond or 

 stream. 



The nest is placed in a natural cavity of a tree, usually not 

 far from the water, but often at a great height. On a bed of 

 grass, warmly lined with down from the breast of the parent, 

 six to fourteen pale buff eggs are laid, the average dimensions 

 being near 2.10 x 1.50. The mated birds are very affection- 

 ate to one another, the male gently caressing the female with 

 his beak. The young are carried from the nest to the water 

 in the beak of the parent, or it has been reported sometimes 

 on the back of the parent. Their alarm call is a peculiar 

 whistle and the love note seems to be a low whistled caressing 

 note. 



