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



that on October 29 he saw in company with Dr. W. C. Mackie a 

 female Wood Duck fly in from the southeast and settle upon the 

 pond. When he called to another observer, who was not far away, 

 the duck took wing and disappeared over Brookline. Occasion- 

 ally in previous seasons one has made a brief call to the pond. 



Clangula clangula americana. Golden-eye.— The Golden-eye 

 is an infrequent visitor to the pond, and when a bird or two of the 

 species appears, it is usually for the day only. On November 26 

 a single female was seen. Mrs. Edmund Bridge mentions seeing 

 a drake on the pond on December 13. Mr. Brainerd states that 

 he saw a pair of Golden-eyes on Leverett Pond on March 6, 1910. 



Charitonetta albeola. Buffle-head. — In two seasons in recent 

 years I have a record of this species on the waters under considera- 

 tion. On November 16 and 18, 1906, I saw a young drake in the 

 Back Bay Fens, and on November 26 and December 15 an im- 

 mature bird, perhaps the same, on the Charles River Basin. This 

 basin had been the winter home of a pair during the season of 

 1905-6. A flock numbering eight birds, two of them drakes in 

 adult plumage, had been present in December, and this pair con- 

 tinued on through January to early February. 



Mr. Barron Brainerd testifies to seeing four ducks on Jamaica 

 Pond in the early morning of October 29, which appeared to him 

 and his companion, Dr. Mackie, to be Buffle-heads on account of 

 their size and color, but the light and their distance out on the 

 middle of the pond prevented a positive identification. 



Erismatura jamaiccnsis. Ruddy Duck. — The Ruddy Duck is 

 a regular visitor to the pond. On October 19 six were present and 

 in the same forenoon two others were seen on Leverett Pond. 

 The Norfolk Bird Club reports that on October 10 the first Ruddy 

 appeared. At the end of October there had been an increase in 

 number. Nine were on the pond at that time and three others 

 on Leverett Pond. Mr. Brainerd reports that he saw seventeen on 

 Jamaica Pond on November 18. The number fluctuated from 

 day to day up to December 17, when there were still eleven present. 

 On the 20th there were but five, and on the 21st there was but one. 

 On the next day none remained. All the Ruddies, therefore, 

 left the pond in advance of its complete freezing up, but not until 

 a strong suggestion that this was impending gave them a plain 



