Unusual Nesting Site of the Black Duck (Anas obscura ).-During 
the past two years I had the pleasure of discovering two instances of 
remarkable deviation from the hitherto well known and universally 
recognized nesting habits of our common Black Duck (Anas obscura). 
The first instance occurred June 10, 1904, when, on a small island in the 
St. Lawrence River, a pair of these ducks had taken possessioni oi an 
old crow’s nest, and on the date of discovery had laid ten eggs The nest 
was saddled on a limb of a large elm, forty-five feet from he ground 
With the exception of a liberal supply of down furnished by the bird the 
nest was in its original condition and so completely was it concealed by 
the foliage that the presence of the duck in her snug retreat would never 
have been suspected had she not been accidently observed flying to the 
tree. The difficulty I experienced in photographing the nest adds to the 
value of the excellent negative I secured. 
April 29, 1905, I located the second nest; in this case, owing to the 
bareness of the trees, concealment was impossible. The duck had laid 
ten eggs in a last year’s nest of the Red-shouldered Hawk in a basswood 
tree fifty feet up, and the appearance of this large bird sitting on her 
nest among the naked branches was truly most unique. . 
In the different works on American ornithology to which I have had 
access, none of the writers refer in any way to this phase of the bird’s 
life but in a book on English natural history entitled ‘ Lakes and Streams 
by C. O. G. Napier, published in England in 1879, the writer speaks of 
the Mallard (Anas boschas) as having been found nesting “in a crow’s 
nest at least thirty feet from the ground.” 
In the two cases I have cited the ducks successfully brought off their 
broods but by what means they conveyed them to the neighboring marsh 
I could not ascertain. Both nests were in trees overlooking extensive 
marshes and in different parts of the county being, possibly, twenty miles 
apart.— Edwin BEAUPRf), Kingston, Ont. Q 
■■■ . 2 '^ ' '■ 
Birds of Toronto, Ontario. 
By James K.Fleming. 
Pt.I, Water 3irds. 
Auk, XXIII, Get., 1905, p.444. 
31. Anas obscura. Black Duck.— Common migrant, March and 
April- the first return in August (rarely in July), plentiful in October and 
November; earliest record March 15, 1899, latest December 6, 1897. 
This is the breeding form in southern Ontario north at least to the 
Muskoka Lakes; a female taken alive on her nest at Barnsdale, Lake 
Joseph, in May, 1905, belonged to this form, and it is no doubt the breed¬ 
ing form much further north. 
Birds of Magdalen Islands. 
Dr. L.B.Biahop. 
16 . Anas obscura. Black Duck. —Common summer resident, breed¬ 
ing in the marshes bordering the small fresh-water ponds in the close neigh¬ 
borhood of the saltwater. 
\S7 
Auk, TL April, 1889. p. i4« 
