AMERICAN WIDGEON 
199 
signs of incipient eclipse as early as July 1, the long central tail-feathers being 
apparently the first to be dropped. 
Status. Figures showing relative numbers of this species shot in different 
regions probably do not give an accurate estimate of the actual numbers present, 
because the Baldpate is a wary bird and the flocks do not split up into small parties 
that are easy to decoy. The numbers taken at Long Point (Lake Erie) vary from 
63 to 663 a year, this last high figure being for 1919. Between 1889 and 1905 out of a 
total of 95,049 ducks taken, 4848 (about 5%), were Baldpates, while from 1906 to 
1920 out of a total of 61,063 the Baldpates numbered 4498 or about 7%. At the 
Monroe Marsh Club (west end of Lake Erie) the proportions were slightly higher. 
Out of 40,615 ducks taken between 1885 and 1901, 3383 (8%) were Baldpates. Even 
in the spring a good many used to be taken, the proportion running as high as 5.5 % 
of the total. In this region there is no indication of recent decrease, either relative or 
absolute. The report of the Minnesota Game Commission for the years 1919-20 
shows that from 30,000 to 120,000 Baldpates are taken in that State annually, which 
is from 3% to 12% of the total number of ducks killed there. 
In northern New England they are known as rare ducks. In twenty years of 
shooting at Wenham Lake, Essex County, Massachusetts, they represent only 2% 
of the total bag. But south of Cape Cod they are found in abundance on Martha’s 
Vineyard, Massachusetts, where perhaps 2500 birds spend the autumn months each 
year and occasionally winter there. They are extremely local and irregular south- 
westward along the coast, occurring on a few ponds in Rhode Island and in consider- 
able numbers on Gardiner’s Island, in Long Island Sound. They become really 
plentiful in Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina. At the Princess Anne Club, 
Virginia, they were third in order of abundance from 1894 to 1921 and averaged 
15 % of all ducks. At the Swan Island Club (Currituck Sound, North Carolina) they 
are also about the third duck in order of abundance and 4458 were taken there be- 
tween 1909 and 1918. At the Narrows Isle Club, North Carolina, they have shown 
a decrease between 1886 and 1923, amounting perhaps to 20 or 30%. They average 
a little over 10% of all ducks shot there in thirty-eight years and the highest years 
were the winters of 1885-86, 1887-88, 1889-90 and 1903-04. The grand total 
killed was 5671. At the Currituck Club close by 11,441 Baldpates were taken in a 
total of 72,124 between 1888 and 1909, that is, about 16%, making it the third in 
order of abundance among the species of ducks killed; it was exceeded only by the 
Black Duck and the Mallard. From 1911 to 1917 there was a small decrease in the 
numbers taken and they have usually in this period been exceeded by Pintail and 
even by Gadwall. The greatest years were the winter of 1893-94, when 1029 were 
shot, and that of 1903-04 when over 1000 were taken. In South Carolina, at the 
mouth of the Santee River, the species is only moderately plentiful; here it is a little 
