390 Wright, Rare Wild Ducks Wintering at Boston, Mass. [oct. 



SOME RARE WILD DUCKS WINTERING AT" BOSTON, 

 MASSACHUSETTS, 1909-1910/ 



BY HORACE W. WRIGHT. 



Plates XIX and XX. 



Under the beneficent protective game-laws of the State, by 

 which lakes and ponds within city parks and state reservations 

 are made safe and secure for resident and migrant birds from all 

 shooting and interference, it has come to pass that a little company 

 of wild ducks rarely seen hereabouts is wintering within the city 

 limits. About four miles out from State Street in the West Rox- 

 bury district lies a pond, covering an area of sixty-five acres, 

 known as Jamaica Pond. It is beautifully set in what is now 

 Olmsted Park. On the easterly side of this pond rises a rather 

 steep bank with growth of pine, giving the name "Pine Bank" 

 to the former private estate. Here is now the administration 

 quarters of the city Park Commissioners. On all sides, except the 

 Jamaica Plain side which is to the southeast, the land rises gradually, 

 notably on the northerly and westerly sides, where are extensive 

 private estates beyond the limit of the park. Along the westerly 

 shores, which are now the park lands, was the home of Francis 

 Parkman with its rose garden. The pond, therefore, has by 

 nature a protected setting in the midst of a beautiful environment. 

 It is deep in the middle; the depth has been estimated to be 

 fifty-five feet. But on the westerly side and in a cove reaching 

 northward the waters are comparatively shallow. It is the largest 

 natural piece of fresh water within the limits of the city. And 

 it was the first source of water supply for Boston; the conduit 

 composed of pitch-pine logs bored out like pump-logs was com- 

 pleted in 1795. But long since it ceased to be a part of Boston's 

 water-system. Into the pond on the northwesterly side flows a 

 brook. When winter comes and covers all the ponds with ice, the 

 formation of which Jamaica Pond resists successfully for a time, 



1 Read before the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cambridge, Mass., February 

 21, 1910, with some slight subsequent additions and emendations. 



