380 Fay, The Canvas-back in Massachusetts. [o^t^ 



that direction. One man informed me that while shooting on 

 Martha's Vineyard he had seen several flocks come from the west- 

 ward in the direction of Long Island Sound. However, it is im- 

 possible to tell whether these were migrating ducks or whether 

 they were merely returning to the pond which they had left at sun- 

 set the previous evening, — the usual habit of most of the ducks 

 there. Furthermore, this theory seems improbable for Dr. W. 

 C. Braislin' in 1904 considered them "sufficiently rare on Long 

 Island as to be worthy of record." Whether they have increased 

 since then or not I do not know. 



Now that the possible routes have been taken up the last con- 

 sideration is the cause for any change in the course of migration. 

 One reason may be that, because the Redheads and Canvas-backs 

 breed in more or less the same territory and that the former have 

 been very common on Martha's Vineyard for a good many years, 

 some may follow the route taken by the Redheads to the Massa- 

 chusetts coast. Also, as the Mississippi Valley becomes more and 

 more settled, fewer may take that course, and as the sloughs near 

 their breeding grounds on the prairies are drained to make way for 

 the wheat fields, they may be forced further and further north each 

 year to breed and so take a more easterly direction. Lastly, it 

 may be due to the fact that they have been so persecuted by sports- 

 men and market hunters on the Chesapeake Bay and North 

 Carolina sounds in years past. This may be a partial explanation 

 for their striking the Atlantic coast so far north. 



However, the fact remains that their numbers are increasing 

 rapidly in Massachusetts. Five years ago they were considered on 

 Martha's Vineyard, as elsewhere, as very rare. That year I 

 killed a pair, and it was of sufficient interest to be commented on 

 in the local paper. Now very little thought is given to these 

 ducks being shot. In talking with the gunners on the island the 

 opinion as to its increasing numbers is general, and they are as 

 unanimous in maintaining that it is getting to be quite common 

 now as they are of the fact of its rarity five or six years ago. Cer- 

 tainly, with this abundance of recent records, I hardly think the 

 Canvas-back can be looked upon any longer as a 'rare species' 



1 Auk, Vol. XXI, p. 288. 



