200 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



rather brownish; belly white. Young and males in eclipse: Resemble 

 the females but the white markings about the eye and base of the bill 

 continue to distinguish the latter. 



Length 18-20 inches; extent 27-30; wing 8.5-9.6; tail 4.3-4.75; bill 

 1. 35-1. 45; tarsus 1.4; middle toe and claw 2. 



Distribution. The Wood duck or Summer duck was formerly a com- 

 mon simimer resident throughout the State, and undoubtedly bred in every 

 county. At the present time it is only fairly common in the most favorable 

 localities, such as the marshes bordering on Seneca river and the eastern 

 and southern shores of Lake Ontario. There are still sufficient birds that 

 visit the State each season to propagate and replenish the depleted coverts 

 of this beautiful species, wherever they are left undisturbed from the time 

 of their arrival to the end of the breeding season. But constant persecution 

 during the spring and summer had nearly brought them to the verge of 

 extermination when the law prohibiting spring shooting was passed in 

 1902. Now in western New York, at least, the Wood duck is holding its 

 own in spite of the tremendous slaughter which initiates the shooting each 

 fall, and we believe the species will be preserved if the spring shooting is 

 abolished in the eastern states, and the law strictly enforced throughout 

 the close season. 



Migration. The Wood duck arrives from the south March 15th to 

 the first of April and remains in our State throughout the summer, but is 

 more common and more generally distributed during the early part of 

 April, and in the fall during September, than it is through the summer 

 months, indicating that a considerable portion of the birds which are observed 

 here are summer residents of more northern districts. The author found 

 this bird common on the cranberry marshes of Lake Restoul and neighbor- 

 ing waters in Parry sound district, Canada, but rare on the Adirondack 

 lakes, indicating as it seemed to him that this bird prefers a home which 

 is undisturbed and can not survive the destruction which almost inevitably 

 follows in the wake of thoughtless summer tourists and fishermen. In the 

 fall it leaves us late in October or November and occasionally is taken as 

 late as the middle of December. 



