357
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1897.
Dec. 11
(No 4)
  The Ducks were scarcely less interesting for although
there were only eight of them they represented no
less than three different species: viz. Anas obscura,
A. boschas, and A. (Nettion) carolinensis.
  There were five Black Ducks and one Mallard; the
latter, a [female], looked much lighter and browner than
the Black Ducks and showed the white on the
speculum distinctly. These six birds kept together
and well within the outer ranks of the Gulls.
Conscious, no doubt, of their absolute security while
surrounded by the alert, wary Gulls, the Ducks spent
most of their time sleeping with their heads buried
in the feathers (scapulars) of their backs rising and
falling on the waves and drifting before the wind like
so many pieces of floating bark for which, indeed,
they might have been easily mistaken. But every
now and then they would raise their heads, close
in together, and swim back to the point whence
they had drifted.
  The Teal were a pair or, at least, [male] & [female]. The drake was
immature lacking the lunar markings on their sides of the breast
and having the chestnut of the head somewhat obscured by
grayish mottling but with the creamy buff patch on the
under tail coverts fully developed. For the first half-hour
these birds kept apart from the other water fowl swimming
rapidly to & fro as if nervous or apprehensive and frequently
raising their bodies out of water and flapping their wings after
the manner of most Duck; they finally approached and
joined the Black Duck & Mallard.