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



the pond in the park. They disappeared, he says, soine time ago, 

 meaning, as I understand from others, two years or more ago, 

 and he knows of no other Widgeon there at any time. No Canvas- 

 backs have recently been members of the collection. I never saw 

 within it any Scaups or Ring-necked Ducks. Redheads, both 

 drakes and ducks, it contains. But the Redhead duck of Jamaica 

 and Leverett Ponds is distinctly larger and finer than these Red- 

 heads which have lived and bred in captivity. Since all the evi- 

 dence goes to show that the ducks of the other four species are wild 

 ducks, which have deliberately chosen the waters of these two 

 ponds for their winter home, it seems quite fair to assume that 

 the fifth species, the Redhead, is also a wild duck. I have, more- 

 over, consulted the park department, represented by those who 

 care for the ducks, as to whether they missed a Redhead duck 

 from their flock at the time of the appearance of this one on 

 Jamaica Pond, December 27, and have learned that they did not. 

 The testimony is that in the gathering in at Franklin Park they 

 lost only a Wood Duck drake. The behavior of all these ducks 

 also confirms the idea that they are wild ducks, since in every case 

 they were much more shy upon their arrival and gradually grew 

 more trustful through association with the park Mallards, these 

 being often fed by the children. So the fact that these ducks 

 have come to receive of such offerings at Leverett Pond must not 

 be taken as invalidating the necessary assumption of their wild- 

 ness by nature. In other seasons other wild ducks of various 

 species have behaved similarly on these ponds and have become 

 very tame and unsuspicious of harm, when in association with the 

 domesticated Mallards. 



More detailed accounts of the arrival and stay of these five 

 species of ducks will now be given, and, incidentally, such previous 

 recent records of other ducks of these species on these and neighbor- 

 ing waters as I myself made or have obtained from local observers. 



Baldpate. — Two Baldpate drakes and one duck were first 

 observed on Jamaica Pond on October 19. Members of the 

 Norfolk Bird Club of Brookline report that they arrived on the 

 17th. These three Baldpates were constantly seen by myself and 

 others from these dates up to November 29, when an additional 

 drake arrived. The four then remained to the time of the closing 



