35 
of the United States Biological Survey predicted that the 
wood duck and the woodcock would become extinct, unless 
better protected . 1 This prediction now seems in a fair way 
to be realized, so far as wood ducks breeding in Massachu- 
setts are concerned. 
The American widgeon or baldpate was formerly seen quite 
generally in small flocks on the interior waters of He w Eng- 
land. It is now believed to be either uncommon, rare, or 
wanting everywhere in Massachusetts except possibly in the 
Connecticut valley and near the coast' in some seasons; but 
Mr. Mackay regards it as not uncommon on Nantucket. 
The black duck has fallen off very much in numbers, but 
it is the only river duck that still may be regarded as gen- 
erally common in the State. Mr. Gerry says that the num- 
ber of black ducks seen now is about one-tenth of one per 
cent of the number that were here seventy years ago, and 
that they have been decreasing ever since that time. He says 
he killed sixty-six black ducks in two mornings in Spot Pond, 
Stoneham, about fifteen years ago, and that the ducks there 
are increasing now under the protection of the Metropolitan 
Park Commission, but that in the ponds outside of the park 
there are now practically no ducks. 2 Black ducks leave the 
salt water at night, going to the springs for fresh water when 
the ground is frozen. They have been greatly decreased by 
night shooting, but they have now become very shy, and 
usually hide in the reedy sloughs, or, when in ponds or on 
salt water, keep well away from the shore during the day. 
There seems to have been a slight increase of these birds 
within a year, and a good flight in some sections in the fall 
of 1904. 
Probably the mallard never was very common generally 
in this State. Mr. Arthur Curtis Dyke of Bridgewater re- 
gards it (1904) as being, next to the black duck, the most 
common there. Mr. Lewis reports an increase of mallards in 
1904 in Rhode Island. The shoveler is very rare, and the 
1 “Two Vanishing Game Birds,” A. K. Fisher, Year Book of the Department of 
Agriculture for 1901, published in 1902. 
2 Since 1904 the protection accorded ducks in Spot Pond and other ponds in the 
Middlesex fells seems to have resulted in increasing somewhat the number of black 
ducks near Boston. 
