BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



109 



November 10, 1888. Two birds were started from a pool in woods near 

 Hardy's Pond, Waltham, by Mr. Alfred L. Danielson who killed one of them. 



December 11, 1897. Saw a pair in Fresh Pond, swimming in deep water near 

 the middle, in company with Black Ducks. The male Teal, as I easily made out by 

 the aid of a powerful glass, was a young bird just passing into mature plumage. 



December 13, 1899. Saw a young male in Fresh Pond in company with 

 Black Ducks. Its plumage was similar to that of the male seen on December 11, 

 1897. 



Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., writes me that he has killed the Green-winged 

 Teal both in Spy Pond and at Great Meadow, and that it has also occurred in 

 the Mystic Ponds. 



24. Querquedula discors (Linn.). 

 Blue-winged Teal. 



Transient visitor, formerly of regular and very common occurrence in autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



April II, 1898, two seen. Fresh Pond Swamps, O. A. Lothrop. 

 June 20, 1894, a pair of ad. birds taken. Spy Pond, W. E. Freeman. 



August 30, 1876, Waltham, C. J. Maynard. 

 September i — 30. 

 October 25, i8g8, two seen. Fresh Pond, O. A. Lothrop. 



In the earlier years of my shooting experience the Blue-winged Teal was 

 one of the most abundant of the water birds that visited the region about 

 Cambridge in autumn, but since 1880 its numbers have steadily diminished, not 

 only here but everywhere throughout New England, until now it is comparatively 

 seldom met with. It used to appear very regularly in September, coming, as a 

 rule, with the first light frosts and frequenting all our ponds, the Fresh Pond 

 Swamps, and to some extent the courses of the larger brooks. During excep- 

 tionally wet seasons it also occasionally alighted in hollows in upland fields, 

 pastures or even apple orchards, where rain water had collected in sufHcient 

 quantity to form shallow, temporary pools. I have only four spring records : the 

 first, of a male which I saw flying over the Brickyard Swamp on May 4, 1 868 ; 

 the second, of a fully adult specimen of the same sex which I shot in this swamp 

 on June 8 of the same year and which is still in my possession ; the third, of two 

 birds which were seen in the Fresh Pond Swamps on April 11, 1B98, by Mr. O. 



