BLACK DUCK 
73 
to their nesting grounds all summer and even into the autumn, until driven out by shooting. Nearly 
always ducks begin to gather on our coast in late July. Probably these are mostly old males. By the 
middle of August the newly reared family parties arrive in some numbers, gathering rapidly during 
the next two weeks. Doubtless some of these come from a good distance inland. Now these local 
ducks may depart for spots unknown before the opening of the shooting season, September 15; or 
they may stay on and mingle with migrants which drift down the coast in some numbers about 
September 25 to 28, just as soon as a northwest breeze, followed by snappy weather occurs. The 
flight of what appear to be eastern-bred ducks (as almost no “Red-legs,” Anas ruhripes rubripes, 
appear at that time) is at its height during the first two weeks in October. This early flight consists 
of a large proportion of obviously young birds. It usually breaks off abruptly about the third week 
of October, after which there may be a gap until the first ten days of November. Western-bred (?) 
ducks, presumably coming by way of the Great Lakes, arrive then in large numbers on our salt 
meadows, and establish themselves for the winter. A few of what seem to be eastern-bred ducks. 
Anas ruhripes tristis, continue to straggle along, but New Brunswick points report the main flight 
over by mid-October, as a rule. In Massachusetts, our first-flight birds of September do not have 
many old males among them, and it is certain that the males, as with the Mallard, start later than 
the females and young. Among the very late migrants in December, sportsmen notice a few very 
small specimens. The same phenomenon is seen in the Mallard. 
We now have a great many returns from banded Black Ducks, thanks to the efforts of two or 
three enthusiastic persons. The largest set of records is from ducks banded by Mr. H. S. Osier at 
Lake Scugog, near Port Perry, Ontario (just north of Lake Ontario). Jack Miner of Kingsville, 
Ontario, also banded Black Ducks and Mallards which seem to show similar dispersals. 
The interesting thing about early autumn migrants at Lake Scugog is that they are not bound by 
any means for the same regions. They fall into two great groups, one of which goes down the Ohio 
and the Mississippi Valley to Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, showing up en route at Lake Ontario 
and Erie points, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. They spread out westward at 
least as far as Michigan and central Illinois (Woodford County) and central Iowa (Pomeroy) which 
shows, if anything does, that the sportsmen of the Northeast are interested in what happens to water- 
fowl in the Mississippi. These same Lake Scugog birds spread out on the Gulf coast all the way 
from Canada, Texas (Jackson County), to northern Florida at Dalle’s Creek, Taylor County. One 
of them was shot on Anticosti Island in April, probably a breeding bird. But the second group of 
the Lake Scugog ducks takes an entirely different direction as is shown by a great number of returns 
from the Atlantie eoast, Delaware and Maryland, south to Georgia. Although there is one record 
for New Jersey it is significant that most of the flight toward the Atlantic coast strikes well south 
of New England. It is a curious fact that this Atlantic coast group does not seem to be as large as 
the inland or Mississippi Valley group. 
Recently a large number of Black Ducks has been banded at Bar Harbor, Maine, and Spring Run 
Pond, Maine. Most of these were retaken locally but some flew south along the coast as far as New 
Jersey, Maryland and the east shore of Virginia. Out of two hundred of these ducks, banded during 
autumn, thirty-two or 16% were shot in October, November and December of the year they were 
banded. 
The northwestern group of Black Ducks, from which we presume (although without complete 
evidence) that all extreme types of our Red-legged race come, probably follow a course along the 
Great Lakes to New England, and also across coimtry to' the Gulf of Mexico; but being an almost 
maritime bird, it probably takes the nearest route to the coast. We know that the two birds taken 
at Fort Churchill, west coast of Hudson Bay, were of the Red-legged race. In Michigan there is a 
considerable migration of these ducks from Lake Superior, and they linger until most of the Mallards 
are gone. Occasionally they even winter on the St. Clair Flats. At Long Point, Lake Erie, there are 
great flights of Red-legs late in the autumn, and on the 12th of November, 1916, just before a great 
