22 NORTH AMERICAN DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 
Heron Lake Minn.. April 5 (earliest, March 20, L889). On March 28, 
L877, young, a week old, were found in central Florida. Eggs have 
been taken on April 20 in Illinois and on April 29 in southern 
( Ontario. 
Fall migration. The species arrives in the valley of Mexico in 
October and in southern Calif ornia in November. Many years' obser- 
vations at Alexandria. Ya.. fix the average date of arrival there as 
October 26, and November 22 as the average date when the hooded 
merganser becomes common. The average date when the Last left 
Montreal was October l ;, .»; southern Minnesota, November 10, and 
central Iowa, November 22. 
Mergus albellus Linn. Smew. 
This is an Old World duck which has been taken once as an acci- 
dental visitant to North America. The basis for its inclusion in the 
list is a single specimen, an adult female, now in the British Museum, 
which was purchased from the Hudson Bay Company (Cat. Birds Brit 
Mus. ( XXVII, p. 408, 1895). There is no evidence as to the locality 
of its capture. 
Anas boschas Linn. Mallard. 
Breeding range. — The northern half of the United States west of 
Pennsylvania, and the whole of Canada west of Hudson Bay, consti- 
tute the principal breeding range in the Western Hemisphere of the 
mallard — the commonest duck on the North American continent and 
probably in the world. In eastern North America the place of the 
mallard is taken by the black duck, and the former is rather rare. 
though a few breed in eastern Ontario about Lake Erie, locally in 
western New York, and south to Maryland. Though unknown as a 
breeder on the mainland east of Hudson Bay, the mallard is rather 
common in Greenland, breeding north to Godthaab and Angmagsalik 
and wandering to Upernavik. Throughout New England and the 
Maritime Provinces it is a rare migrant, and while some of the records 
<>f its breeding in these districts may be correct, it is no more than a 
casual summer resident. 
In the interior the breeding range extends regularly south to lati- 
tude 41 and a few breed south to southern Indiana, southern Illinois, 
central Missouri, and southern Kansas. The breeding range bends 
south in the Rocky Mountains to southern New Mexico and on the 
Pacific coast to Lower California (San Pedro Martir Mountains). 
The breeding range extends north to Fort Churchill, to the Arctic 
coast in the Mackenzie Valley, and to Kotxebue Sound and the Fur 
Seal Islands in Alaska. 
The mallard is one of the earliest birds to breed. The nesting sea- 
son extends from early April in southern California and the lirst week 
