52 LAMPRONESSA SPONSA 



parently it winters throughout the southern and western part of the State, for it has been taken as 

 far south as San Diego County in the last days of November (J. Grinnell, 1915; Willett, 1919a; Grey, 

 1918). I have not found records of its occurrence in Arizona or New Mexico. 



The specimen taken by Colonel Abert at Mazatlan (G. N. Lawrence, 1874) was probably a winter 

 bird, and it is certainly strange that the species has not been met with in northern Mexico. Sanchez 

 Mexi (1877-78), Herrera (1888), and Villada (1891-92) all state that it occurs in the Valle 



de Mexico, the last-named giving October to March as the duration of its stay, but 

 Mexican records need to be verified. A very remarkable record is that given by de Armas (1893) 

 Panama for Colon, Panama! The species is also included in J. J. Rodriguez's (1909-10) List 



Guatemala of Guatemalan Birds! 



Migration 



The Carolina Duck is not a very early spring migrant, arriving in the northern United States during 

 the latter part of March and early April. The dates of arrival given by Cooke (1906) are: Massa- 

 chusetts, March 24; New York, March 25; Ohio, April 1; and eastern Canada, Montreal, April 24; 

 Ottawa, April 22; southern Ontario, April 17. West of the Mississippi the dates given are: Iowa, 

 March 20; Minnesota, April 4-6; southern Manitoba, April 15. My earliest Massachusetts record 

 is March 21, at Ipswich. 



Cooke very aptly remarks that the autumn migration is nothing more than a withdrawal from the 

 northern part of the summer range. The dates when the species was last seen are chiefly in October, 

 and are as follows: Ottawa, October 27; Montreal, November 1; Maine, October 27; west of the Mis- 

 sissippi last seen in Iowa, November 9. In especially favorable spots a few remain until late in the 

 autumn. I have seen considerable flocks in eastern Connecticut in mid- or late November. 



Out of a few hand-reared Carolinas which I from time to time banded and released at Wenham, 

 there were some returns from points farther south, one from Georgia. Heinroth's birds, bred and 

 ringed in Berlin, went usually southwest, once as far as 620 kilometers (Heinroth, 1912), but one was 

 curiously enough taken in Kurland, 850 kilometers northeast of its starting point in late winter 

 (Heinroth, 1915) in company with a ringed Mandarin Duck. 



European Records 



It remains to say a few words about the numerous occurrences of the Carolina Duck in Europe. The 

 species is a very common one in zoological gardens where it is often kept in a practically free state 

 and hence frequently escapes. Consequently it has been taken many times in the British Isles and 

 also in France, Germany, and Austria. Of greater interest is its repeated appearance in Austria 

 where, up to 1886, it had occurred three times in Styria alone (von Mojsisovics, 1886). In December, 

 1883, there was a flock near Gratz and in the winter of 1890-91 another flock appeared in Slavonia, 

 upper and lower Austria, and Styria. Mojsisovics von Mojsvar (1897) gives no less than half a dozen 

 records between 1883 and 1891 and points out that not only did none of the specimens show signs of 

 captivity but that it was impossible to learn of any gardens that missed some of their birds. Fatio 

 (1904) says the species occurs repeatedly in Switzerland, and in view of all this testimony it seems to 

 me probable that some of the earlier escaped birds have bred in central Europe and are now at large 

 there in the basin of the upper Danube. 



GENERAL HABITS 



The Carolina Duck is an inhabitant of deciduous forests and small inland water- 

 ways. In New England it prefers large, slow-moving brooks and small rivers and the 

 inlets of ponds. As one travels up to the spruce- and pine-clad uplands of central 

 Maine and New Brunswick, it is seen much more rarely, so that everywhere in the 



