° 'i9i0 J Wright, Rare Wild Ducks Wintering at Boston, Mass. 391 



along this northwesterly shore where the brook enters and a breeze 

 seems always to come down from the northwest moving the waters, 

 an area continues open even after the remainder of the pond is 

 frozen, — an area successively diminishing night by night of severe 

 frost. So the water-fowl which come to the pond are able to 

 remain late, sometimes into early January. 



Next northward from Jamaica Pond, following the parkway, 

 lies Ward's Pond set in a small basin and covering somewhat less 

 than three acres. Here occasionally a wild bird alights and re- 

 mains for a time. Next, proceeding northward still, are three 

 pools fed by active springs which prevent the freezing of the 

 Avaters. The largest pool is known as Willow Pond. Small as 

 this is, occasionally it receives a wild duck or two in midwinter, 

 when the weather is severe and closes up the other ponds. Next 

 lies Leverett Pond, which in earlier years was a swamp, but 

 was converted by the Park Commission into a pond of twelve 

 acres. Without much width it stretches out well in length and 

 lies between hilly ridges. On the easterly side is Parker Hill in 

 Boston; on the westerly side, the High Street district and its 

 elevated lands in Brookline. Leverett Pond receives Muddy 

 River, which forms the boundary between Boston and Brookline 

 and flows through the Back Bay Fens into the Charles River 

 Basin. The entrance of the river into Leverett Pond, although 

 it is a very insignificant stream, serves to keep an area of open 

 water toward its northerly end and except in very cold weather 

 even across to the opposite shore. In the severest cold waves 

 of the winter the open water is not entirely lost, although it may 

 be diminished to an area not more than fifty or sixty feet across. 

 Here a flock of park Mallards has wintered as usual. Throughout 

 the year a small flock lives on this pond and breeds. At Jamaica 

 Pond a much larger flock breeds, and some of these Mallards, 

 when the keeper gathers in his flock in early winter for life in 

 houses and pens, escape and secure a more natural life at Leverett 

 Pond. So the flock on this pond is increased by an accession 

 from Jamaica Pond. It has numbered about sixty ducks the 

 present winter. Two European swans have lived throughout 

 the winter with them. Bridle paths and park roads border these 

 ponds, in some places closely, in other places somewhat more 



