36 
ANAS BOSCHAS 
Dr. M. P. Porsild of the Danish Arctic Station at Disko, Greenland, writes me 
that Mallards are rather scarce in that region and during sixteen years he has only 
known of one nest. Very few are sold there as game for the table. 
In North America, Mallards were steadily decreasing in number until the passage 
of the Federal Migratory Bird Law in 1913. Since that time a marked increase in 
Mallards, Pintails and Teals has been noticed, particularly in the Mississippi Valley 
and the West. Mallards are now breeding much more commonly than formerly over 
the northern and central States where the local stock was sadly reduced. Perhaps the 
greatest danger of the future is in the increasing demand for agricultural land, which 
is resulting in the drainage of many splendid breeding grounds. It is very unfortunate 
that many of the areas now being drained are not fitted for agriculture but are the 
outcome of speculation and promotion schemes. It is necessary, therefore, that large 
tracts should be permanently set aside, both by the individual States and by the 
Federal Government, to serve for all time as breeding reservoirs for our wild-fowl. 
We must not forget that abundance depends upon the area of proper feeding and 
resting grounds far more than upon the number of guns. Ducks do not necessarily 
decrease with an increase of shooters for they are creatures of extraordinary adapta- 
bility. But just as soon as a country begins to lose its natural wild-fowl reservoirs, 
the birds grow less in spite of all sorts of restrictive measures. 
In New England it is doubtful if much change has taken place in the status of 
the Mallard for, excepting sporadically, it has always been rare. The last consider- 
able flight was in 1904, when about one hundred appeared in the markets of Boston 
during one week in October (Forbush, 1912). That same year numbers were seen in 
Merrymeeting Bay, Maine (F. T. Noble, 1905), and the records of clubs at Curri- 
tuck Sound, North Carolina, for the year 1904 also show exceptional abundance. 
It is never regular in its appearance east of the Connecticut Valley. At Long Point, 
Lake Erie, in the late ’80’s, from one-third to one-half as many Mallards as Black 
Ducks were shot. In recent years this proportion has changed materially, ranging 
from as low as 4% to as high as 15 or 20 %. This would seem to indicate that the Mal- 
lard is or was decreasing faster than the Black Duck. Such results are not surprising, 
because the breeding grounds of the Mallard have suffered more than those of the 
Black Duck. W. L. Dawson (1903) considered the species much diminished in Ohio 
during the preceding fifty years. I have already pointed out (Phillips, 1912) the 
probability that Mallards were holding their own less successfully than the Black 
Ducks at Currituck Sound, North Carolina. An idea of the enormous numbers that 
were formerly destroyed may easily be obtained by consulting notes in sportsmen’s 
periodicals, and the reports of the State game commissioners. Out of 150,000 ducks 
shot in Arkansas in the season of 1893-94 no less than four-fifths were Mallards 
(Howell, 1911). In the winter of 1913-14, 117,843 Mallards were received in the 
markets of New Orleans, including those taken by amateur hunters. Forbush 
