V °i8# ni J J OB ' Ducks of Plymouth Co., Mass. 201 



and seen several times more. No large flocks occurred there. 

 At Assowompsett a considerable flock was shot into, and a num- 

 ber secured. 



The Shoveller {Spatula clypeata) is now one of our rarer ducks, 

 and becoming more and more so. I have not been able to find it 

 myself. Mr. Bassett has not taken it in Nippenickett in his 

 twenty years' experience. Mr. Wood saw one captured in the 

 fall, about 1S81, taken from a flock of tame ducks, at the outlet of 

 Billington Sea, Plymouth. He also knows of six or eight being 

 shot at Great South Pond about five years ago. Dr. W. C. Wood- 

 ward, of Micldleboro, has taken the species occasionally in some 

 of the Kingston ponds, until within ten years, since which he has 

 not seen one. 



The Gadwall {Anas streperd) is liable to be confounded with 

 the Widgeon and Pintail. As I have not met with it myself, it is 

 hard to find undoubted instances of its occurrence. Mr. Wood is 

 the only one from whom I have obtained reliable information 

 regarding it. He says that Gadwalls are " taken as stragglers 

 with flocks of Black Duck during the fall migration at Billington 

 Sea, rarely the past five years." 



Passing now to the Fuligulinae, and not attempting any classifi- 

 cation as to abundance, the Red-head (Ay thy a americana) may 

 first be mentioned. It is found both on the coast and in the 

 ponds. In numbers it is somewhat intermittent from year to 

 year, though it occurs regularly each fall. From two to a dozen 

 are said by one of the U. S. L. S. S. men to be taken off Manomet 

 Point each season. Several at least are annually taken in Nip- 

 penickett, some years quite a number. In 1893 it was particularly 

 numerous. On Oct. 10, eleven were secured from a flock of 32. 

 I secured a specimen, adult male, at Chatham, Jan. 1, 1885, which 

 shows that they sometimes winter. Mr. Wood has found them 

 scarcer in the Plymouth ponds than I have a little further inland. 



The only undoubted instance of the occurrence of the Canvas- 

 back (Aythya vallisnerid) which comes to my knowledge is re- 

 ported by Mr. Wood. He has had in his possession one speci- 

 men, a lone bird that was decoyed and shot at Billington Sea, 

 about 1S85, in the autumn. A few other instances are reported, 

 but cannot be proven beyond doubt. 



