BLACK DUCK 
81 
while Audubon found females still incubating in southern Labrador on June 17. By 
July 17 nearly all females had broods. In the Magdalens, eggs are deposited from 
late May to early June (Maynard, 1882), and in Minnesota from May 15 to 27 
(Hatch, 1892). In eastern Massachusetts the average time of laying is early May. 
Extraordinarily early nestings were recorded by Game Warden P. K. Hilliard in 
New Jersey during the unusual spring of 1921. In a letter to Dr. T. S. Palmer of the 
U.S. Biological Survey, this warden described four nests with eggs along the west 
side of Upper Barnegat Bay on March 2! That same spring I saw a brood of ten 
young several days old near Plymouth, Massachusetts, on April 25, but this was 
wholly exceptional. There are, however, a good many early April nesting dates for 
southern New England, Long Island and New Jersey. 
The nest is placed in a great variety of situations, nearly always on the ground, and 
near water, well hidden, and by no means easy to find, as the species becomes ex- 
tremely secretive just as soon as the nest is built. Some unusual situations have been 
noted. One was recorded in the cavity of a leaning birch thirty feet above ground 
(Boardman, fide G. B. Grinnell, 1900), another on an island in the St. Lawrence 
River in an old Crow’s nest situated forty -five feet above ground. Down was added 
to the original nest (Beaupre, 1906). The same writer found another Black Duck 
occupying the nest of a Red-shouldered Hawk in a bass-wood tree fifty feet high. 
In Labrador they are said to nest chiefly on the out-reaching branches of stunted 
spruce trees, which are seldom higher than four feet, at least near the coast (Frazar, 
1887; Davie, 1898). Samuels (1870) described one on a stump that overhung a 
small spring, a mile from any water, on the side of a hill. 
Brewster (1884) found this duck nesting commonly in the immediate vicinity 
of the sea in the St. Lawrence region, and this is no doubt characteristic of all 
northern regions. The numbers that nest in the interior of Labrador are probably 
negligible. Even in the highlands of Maine and in the Adirondacks one could 
hardly call the Black Duck an abundant nester, and it is very greatly outnumbered 
in these regions by American Goosanders and Golden-eyes. 
The clutch is like that of the Mallard in number and the eggs of the two species 
are indistinguishable as regards both size and color. The incubation period is from 
twenty-six to twenty-eight days. 
Their early love for salt water is well shown by observations in Anticosti, where 
young only three or four days old were seen at sea (Brewster, 1884). Males stay 
near the females at least until incubation has started, in some cases until it is well 
under way, but we need definite data on this point. The male then retires to moult, 
and becomes absolutely invisible. It is only very rarely that one runs across a male 
when incapable of flight, although the females and young are much in evidence soon 
after the latter are hatched. Audubon found males moulting in Labrador July 4. 
He noticed that sterile females moulted much earlier than those with broods. 
