THE WOOD DUCK 141 



a pellucid woodland stream, their elegant forms floating as lightly 

 as a drifting leaf and mirrored in the element that they love. The 

 display of their wonderful plumage among the flashing lights and 

 deep shadows of such a secluded nook forms a picture, framed by 

 the umbrageous foliage of the forest, that, once seen by the lover 

 of nature, is indelibly imprinted on his memory as one of the epi- 

 sodes of a lifetime. I have taken more pleasure in watching a flock 

 of these exquisite birds in such surroundings that I can imagine any 

 one could take in shooting into the flock. But there are men who 

 will watch a family of Wood Ducks thru the summer, until the 

 young are grown, and then hunt and exterminate them; or who 

 will shoot them ruthlessly in spring — even after the nests are made 

 and the eggs are laid. 



Many years ago the Wood Duck was the most abundant of all 

 wild-fowl in many well- wooded regions of the United States. 

 Hundreds flocked along the wooded streams and about the wood- 

 land ponds. Even within the past fifty years this splendid Duck 

 has been very numerous in the forested regions of some of the 

 States east of the Mississippi. 



The fate of the Wood Duck is determined by its breeding and 

 •migration range. This lies mostly within the United States, where, • 

 for centuries, spring shooting has been allowed. Had it been able 

 go breed in the far north, where few white men ever go, it would 

 have been better able to maintain itself, or had it bred mainly in 

 southern Canada even, where spring shooting is prohibited and where 

 the law is respected, and had it been able to pass over the United 

 States in its migration without stopping, it might have avoided 

 destruction; but it lives mainly within the United States. It fre- 

 quents small streams and ponds only a gunshot in width or less, in 

 wooded regions where it is easily ambushed by the hunter, and our 

 people have ruthlessly destroyed this, one of the most beautiful 

 objects of creation, and will yet eradicate it unless laws are enacted 

 and enforced in all the States, protecting it at all times. This bird 

 is better appreciated abroad than here. In Belgium large numbers 

 are reared in captivity, and they are in great demand as ornamental 

 water-fowl. It may be that the bird can be saved from extinction 

 only by rearing it upon preserves and large estates, and retaining 

 enough in confinement each winter to perpetuate the species. It 

 is now (191 1 ) protected by law at all times in New York, Connecti- 

 cut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. 



