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



remotely. There are walks along the shores throughout their 

 extent. Thus, being attractive spots in the park-system, many 

 persons move daily afoot, on horseback, or in carriage or auto- 

 mobile, and the situation is not isolated, but on the contrary is in 

 very close touch with the town centre of Brookline and in the 

 pathway of pleasure travel. 



On these open waters of Leverett Pond five species of wild ducks 

 have wintered; namely, Baldpate {Mareca arnericana), three 

 drakes and one duck; Redhead (Marila arnericana), a duck; 

 Canvas-back {Marila valUsineria), a drake; Lesser Scaup (Marila 

 aifunis), a drake; and Ring-necked (Marila collaris), a drake. 



All of these birds first appeared in Jamaica Pond. There is 

 scarcely any basis for doubt that they are the same birds which 

 successively came there in the autumn and early winter and 

 remained to the complete freezing up of the pond. This took 

 place on December 30. The small area which had remained open 

 and grown somewhat smaller night by night was then closing up. 

 Thus the ducks were given notice that they must quickly leave, 

 and the operations of the park employees on that day precipitated 

 their departure; for it was a matter of mercy and necessity that 

 the park ducks should be gathered in. This was done by the use 

 of a stretched seine or netting held around the flock by several 

 men, by means of which they were slowly drawn into a pen in 

 which they could be conveyed to winter quarters. The wild 

 ducks naturally took wing and dispersed. But it proved that they 

 did not go far and were not long lost to view. The four Baldpates 

 passed at once to Chestnut Hill reservoir, which is a part of the 

 city's water supply and also within the city limits, where the 

 water pumped in and rising forcibly to the surface serves to keep 

 a considerable area open in the coldest weather. This reservoir 

 is about two miles distant across country from Jamaica Pond. 

 The Baldpates remained here but a brief time, however, for all 

 four were seen on Leverett Pond on January 5. The Redhead and 

 the Canvas-back were not located for two or three days, but they 

 could not have gone far, for they both came back and were seen 

 on their return on Leverett Pond. No Lesser Scaup drake had 

 been seen on Jamaica Pond later than December 24; two had 

 remained there up to that day. January 3 a Lesser Scaup drake 



