DUCKS 55 



greatly reduced in numbers. It remains in the State all the 

 year and the inadequate protection formerly afforded by the 

 State law, when the hunting season opened on September 1, 

 before the young were fully grown, is probably in large part 

 the cause of its disappearance. The establishment by Fed- 

 eral regulation in 1918 of a continuous closed season for the 

 wood duck will, it is hoped, save this valuable and attractive 

 species from extermination. 

 As long ago as 1890, Avery said of this bird: 



Once abundance, now not at all common. Twenty-five years 

 ago, in September, I saw one morning at least three hundred 

 of these ducks come at dawn to feed in a pond, at Millwood, 

 on the Warrior River, ten miles west of Greensboro. Now for 

 a whole year not half of that number could be found in that 

 locality* 



McCormack, in 1891, recorded the species as a resident of 

 Colbert County and stated that he had often seen the young 

 during July and August.t On July 13, 1891, he saw about 50 

 wood ducks in a pond at Leighton. On May 10, 1912, also at 

 Leighton, I observed a female with a brood of 5 or 6 young, 

 about one-third grown, swimming in a timbered slough; and 

 Holt saw 3 in a pond near there in July, 1913. In the Tennes- 

 see River near Fort Deposit on June 18, 1913, we saw 3 young 

 birds. At Teasley Mill, Montgomery County, May 15, 1914. 

 a female was caught in a beaver trap set in Catoma Creek; 

 and at Seale, May 21, 1914, a female and 3 young were seen 

 in a pond near town. On the lower Tensaw River, between 

 Mobile and Stiggins Lake, May 25 to 28, 1914, I found the 

 species fairly common. 



The wood duck has been recorded from Coosada (1879, 

 Brown), Hollins (1908, Saunders), Montgomery (breeding),! 

 and Carlton (1912, Holt). On the coast it is said to be rare, 

 but a few were shot by Childress Calloway near Orange Beach 

 in 1909. 



General habits. — The wood duck is a dweller in timbered 

 swamps and wet river bottoms, where it places its nest in a 

 hollow tree, usually over or near the water. The young take 



•Avery, W. C, Amer. Field, vol. 34, p. 684, 1890. 



tMcCormack, F. W.. Leighton (Ala.) News, vol. 2, No. B, February 28, 1891. 



tGoIean and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 216. 1914. 



