THE OOLOGIST 



ing the river in a number of 

 places. Jan. 26, 1894 word was 

 brought me that a man had a wild 

 duck that he had captured on the 

 main street of our village. Upon call- 

 ing on the man I secured this duck 

 which proved to be an adult female 

 American Merganser still alive but in- 

 jured as to be unable to fly. I sent 

 the duck to my taxidermist to be 

 mounted with instructions to examine 

 and report cause of injury. He did 

 report a few days afterward thus: "I 

 examined it (the duck) and found the 

 large bone of the right wing broken. 

 The skin was not broken so it must 

 have been broken with a blunt instru- 

 ment." I think that this Merganser 

 came in contact with some of the 

 wires strung across the river when 

 flying from one feeding place to 

 another. Thus one of our winter 

 ducks came to an untimely end. But 

 what of the Black Ducks and those 

 others which depend on the shallow 

 waters of mud flats when these same 

 flats are frozen over solid with ice. 

 These ducks mostly winter on the 

 bays and inlets of the coast. Merry- 

 meeting Bay is one of the great duck 

 grounds for fall shooting in this state. 

 Here the ducks gather in great hoards 

 in the fall. Most of them go further 

 south for the winter, some to remain. 

 Casco Bay among the islands of which 

 is another place for the ducks to re- 

 main during the winter. When this 

 bay freezes over many of the ducks 

 congregate in Back Cove, Portland 

 Harbor, an arm of the bay. This Back 

 Cove or Bay as it is sometimes called, 

 beyond Tukey's Bridge is entirely 

 within the city limits of Portland. 

 **W. H. Bronson writing of this 

 "Gathering of the Clands" in the win- 

 ter of 1903-4 says. "After the cold 

 weather began to close the bay with 

 ice, a flock of perhaps fifty whistlers 

 lived for some weeks in Back Cove, 



in full view from Tukey's bridge. With 

 them there was a little bunch of 

 buffleheads. Black duck in a flock of 

 fifty or more were also seen in Back 

 Cove." 



"After the bay was so solidly frozen 

 that there was no feeding ground for 

 black ducks anywhere around the 

 islands these ducks gathered in great 

 numbers, fully 700 or 800, around Mar- 

 tin's Point bridge, near the Marine 

 hospital, and for a month past (Feb. 

 21, 1904) and up to the first half of 

 March they remained." 



"At the coldest weather, when there 

 was only a small patch of open water 

 above and below the bridge, they 

 were right up under the bridge, and 

 at the approach of an electric car they 

 would fly up by the hundred, circling 

 out over the bay and finally return- 

 ing." 



"There they became so tame that 

 persons from the city, who went out 

 to see them in large numbers, could 

 approach within easy gunshot of them. 

 It seemed during the coldest weather 

 they were suffering for food and from 

 time to time kind hearted people 

 threw to them as much as twenty 

 bushels of corn. At the first thaw 

 the flats opened and early in March 

 they had abundance of feeding ground. 

 They constantly flew back and forth 

 over the bridge, some even hitting the 

 telegraph wires, and several being dis- 

 abled in this way. Again jFeb. 

 15, 1907 the same author says: 

 "In back cove beyond Tukey's bridge, 

 entirely within the city limits, there 

 has been a large flock of sea birds dur- 

 ing the winter, especially while the 

 weather has been the coldest. These 

 are Red-legged Black Ducks, American 

 Goldeneye and Buffleheads." 



This winter (1917-18) has been what 

 we call 'an old fashion winter' with a 

 long duration of low temperature, and 

 much snow. Ice forming on our rivers 



