BLACK DUCK 
75 
huge sound at Tabisantack, New Brunswick, and Merrymeeting Bay on the 
Kennebec River in Maine. They seldom attempt to feed on crops, indeed there is 
little grain country within their range, but they do resort to upland pastures in late 
summer to obtain blueberries. 
This is the characteristic duck of our tidal marshes. It feeds all along the narrow 
ditches and drains at low tide, and at high water it drifts about, waiting for the 
tide to fall, or flies inland for fresh water. In winter it seems to be able to get all the 
fresh water it needs from small trickles of brackish water which seep out under the 
banks in tide-creeks. 
Wariness. Without doubt this is the wariest of all the duck tribe. Particularly 
intelligent and alert are those that winter along the thickly settled coast of Mas- 
sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and the shores of Long Island Sound. 
Here they live in continuous contact with man, yet although formerly shot at, day 
and night, during the whole winter, and even into the spring, they managed to hold 
their own remarkably well. In Plum Island Sound between Ipswich and Rowley, 
Massachusetts, there were, as nearly as I could estimate, about three thousand 
Black Ducks regularly wintering. Twenty years ago there were two market gunners 
left who shot from floats at night, and in the daytime during easterly gales. These 
two men together took perhaps six hundred ducks between them during the whole 
season, and the numbers taken by all other shooters combined were insignificant. 
The local wintering Black Ducks never become at all tame except when the 
marshes accumulate a thick covering of ice and snow, and the exposed mud is 
greatly restricted. Then they have to gather in a few places where the current has 
kept open holes, and being in poor condition they soon lose nearly all of their 
natural acuteness. 
Black Ducks are not naturally wild. The young are extremely tame until shot at. 
I have decoyed them in the marshes of James Bay by simply squatting down in the 
grass, waving my hat in the air and giving a few quacks. If they are really let en- 
tirely alone, they remain extremely tame all summer; but one day’s shooting is 
suflicient to educate them almost completely. I sometimes think that the more guns 
that turn out on the opening day, the better it is for the ducks. 
It is not diflBcult to tame Black Ducks under certain conditions. In a small cement 
pond in Franklin Park, Boston, Mr. Morse, of the Boston Zoological Park, fed about 
seventy-five Black Ducks during the hard winter of 1919-20. These became so 
tame that he could, and did catch a number in his hands without the use of any 
trap. The following winter (1920-21) which was very open and warm, he was not 
able to repeat this performance. 
It is remarkable that the “Red-leg” type (Anas rubripes ruhripes), as seen on our 
New England coast, is very much afraid of live decoys, especially if they quack 
