Vol. xxxvn 



1919 



Wright, Black Duck Nesting at Boston. 355 



the ensuing feeling of security should have become so firmly fixed. 

 As a mode of escape or protection, however, it is practised 

 only so long as the birds are bound to a restricted area — the young 

 by their inability to leave it, the old by the care which the nest 

 and fledglings entail. As soon, therefore, as the young birds have 

 acquired the full use of their wings both young and old alike seek 

 the greater safety in flight. 



BLACK DUCK NESTING IN BOSTON PUBLIC GARDEN. 



BY HORACE W. WRIGHT. 



The first appearance of Black Ducks (Anas rubripes tristis) in 

 the Public Garden, of which 1 t m aware, was in the early morning 

 of May 22, 1910, when a pair flew in, alighted on the pond among a 

 family of Mallards (Anas plaiyrhynchos), and remained fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, alert and watchful in their new surroundings. 

 The parent Mallards at once became solicitous for their young 

 brood, especially the mother who carefully kept herself between 

 the female Black Duck and the ducklings. These ducklings 

 had been hatched on May 12, nine in number, but four had been 

 lost in the first few days of life on the pond, leaving five which were 

 successfully reared. When the pair of Blacks left they were 

 escorted on their way by the Mallard drake. The Black Ducks 

 very probably came from the Back Bay Fens, where a considerable 

 flock then wintered season by season. The building of the coffer 

 dam to form the Charles River Basin and exclude tide water has 

 resulted in the complete freezing up of the waters in the Fens in 

 more recent years and an enforced absence of ducks in the winter. 

 But about the intakes of reservoirs in the vicinity and on Leverett 

 Pond, where the waters of Muddy River enter, Black Ducks in 

 varying numbers still winter. 



The following spring, 1911, a pair of Blacks came to the Garden 

 on April 18, remained for a short time, watchful of any approach, 



