BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 125 



History. 



Little is known about the history of the little Scaup Black- 

 head or Bluebill, for it was formerly confused with the larger 

 species and is not now distinguished from it by many gunners. 

 Therefore all statements regarding its distribution, migrations, 

 increase or decrease in localities that are frequented by both 

 species must be received with some caution. There is little 

 to be learned about its former status in New England from 

 ornithological writers. Brewster (1907) states that it formerly 

 came into Fresh Pond, Cambridge, in small flocks, but recently 

 it seems to have grown rarer there. Mr. Robert O. Morris 

 of Springfield says (1901) that years ago he has seen five 

 hundred of this species on the Connecticut River at one time, 

 but they were driven away by gunners in boats. This species 

 responds to protection readily, however, and is seen now in 

 small numbers in the ponds about Boston where no shooting 

 is allowed, particularly in Jamaica Pond. It frequents small 

 fresh-water ponds, rivers and creeks and brackish waters, 

 while the Greater Scaup appears to prefer large lakes and 

 the salt water. For this reason the decrease of the Lesser 

 Scaup in New England probably has been much more rapid 

 than that of the Greater Scaup, which finds more safety in 

 the larger ponds and salt-water bays that it frequents. Dr. 

 John C. Phillips finds that in three years at Wenham Lake 

 the number of Greater Scaup killed was only about twenty 

 per cent, of the number of Scaup taken. Probably the re- 

 verse would be true on salt water. 



Fifty-two of those who reported to me in 1908 gave infor- 

 mation about this species, and thirty-two expressed an opinion 

 that its numbers had changed. Only four reported an 

 increase; twenty-seven a decrease. Reports all along the 

 Atlantic coast indicate a great decrease in the numbers of 

 this species. I have observed this diminution myself in the 

 south. In January, 1878, on Lake George, Fla., Raft Ducks 

 were scattered over the water as far as the eye could see, and 

 on Indian River they were gathered in great rafts a mile or 

 more in length, but by the year 1900 only a few hundred, or 



