BLACK DUCK. 25 



dividing line between the two is unknown. A specimen from the 

 Straits of Belle Isle is obscura; one from Okak, Labrador, is inter- 

 mediate, and one from Ungava Bay, only aujjgjjr miles farther north, 



is rubripes. ^ WsLT '"'""""""U*- 



The black duck breeds~so early that youflg^jijaye TCe^tf^yjnd at Old 

 Saybrook, Conn., May 5, and eggs at Eehftfe^hrMlSSlf, AprTHsO. 



Winter range. — This species is accidental inw#8t£r|JHjjpthe West 

 Indies (Jamaica), rare in the Bermudas, and rare in central Florida 

 (Gainesville) and also in Alabama. From Georgia northward it is 

 more common, and from North Carolina to New Jersey it is one of the 

 abundant winter ducks. Black ducks, including both A. obscura and 

 A. rubripes, are abundant at this season around Long Island and on 

 the shores of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but although a few 

 A. obscura winter in Massachusetts, the greater number are A. rubripes. 

 West of the Alleghenies there is uncertainty" as to which form pre 

 ponderates in winter. A. obscura is a tolerably common winter 

 resident of Louisiana, but A. rubripes reaches Arkansas, and one form 

 or the other winters as far north as southern Ohio, southern Indiana, 

 and southern Illinois. In migration A. obscura is rare west to eastern 

 Nebraska (Fairmont, Gresham, Calhoun) and eastern Kansas (Reno 

 County, Wichita, and Lawrence). Notes on the migration of this 

 species are for the most part included under those of A. rubripes. 



Anas obscura rubripes Brewst. Red-legged Black Duck. 



Breeding range. — As stated under the last species, a breeding duck 

 from Okak, northeastern Labrador, is considered intermediate between 

 this form and A. obscura, while the bird breeding at Ungava Bay is A. 

 rubripes. This Ungava Bay record seems to mark the northeastern 

 . limit of the species so far as reported. Thence the species extends west 

 to Hudson Bay, as far north at least as Fort Churchill, and is rare or 

 accidental west to Manitoba (Long Lake; Lake Manitoba, October 28, 

 1900; Delta, September 4, 1902, September, 1903; St. Marks, two, 

 October, 1902), and to Fort Anderson. The southern limit of the 

 breeding range in Ontario has not yet been determined. 



Winter range. — Most of the black ducks that winter in Massachu- 

 setts are A. rubripes, and this is about as far north as the species com- 

 monly winters. Along the coast some have been known in winter as 

 far north as Nova Scotia. How far south the species goes has not yet 

 beeri determined, but it is common on the coast of South Carolina 

 from November to March, and a specimen was taken in Mississippi 

 County, Ark., November 5, 1887. It occurs west to Nebraska (Green- 

 wood, Lincoln, Calhoun) and undoubtedly wanders to eastern Kansas. 

 The northern winter limit in the interior is probably from northwestern 

 Pennsylvania to southern Wisconsin. 



