Connecticut, June, 1893 , 
One of my neighbors, 
sitting by a window, had his attention 
called to a brood of young ducks running 
across the street. It was an old Black- 
duck and her young. He saw them enter 
a cow-yard, and in one corner she called 
her brood under her wings and covered 
them. As he went near she flew some fif¬ 
teen rods and watched his movements, 
quacking her displeasure as he proceeded 
to capture her young ones. He secured 
ten of them, all the brood but two. After 
he had examined all he cared to he set 
them at liberty, and together they started 
on a run through Main street, continuing 
foi forty rods before they turned aside, a 
distance which they accomplished inside 
of five minutes; for the little things could 
run like squirrels. This ocuurred on the 
5th of May, and implies that the eggs 
must have been laid much earlier than I 
supposed was customary with the species. 
There was no water near and they seemed 
traveling from one creek overland to 
^6^17^1^882 
Clark , Old Sayorook, Conn. 
The Dusk y Duck breeds sparingly. A 
nest was found April 30. It was hollowed 
out at the foot of an old haystack, and 
extended in twenty-seven inches, being 
completely hidden by a curtain of hay 
hanging over the entrance. It contained 
ten eggs; incubation slight. The nest 
would not have been found had it not been 
for the old bird hissing like a snake as I 
passed by it. A farmer found a set of 
Birds of Dead River Region, Me. F. E. 0 
| 97 Anas obxotra, (Black Mallard). Common 
I in the numerous ponds of the region in Septem¬ 
ber, when they afford good shooting. Several 
broods of flappers were seen in June along the 
Dead Kiver, and several farmers informed me ot 
the finding of the nests and eggs of this species, 
and their subsequent attempts at hatching and 
rearing the juveniles. 
O.&O. XI. Deo. 1886. p. 173 
An Ornithologist’s Summer in Labrador 
M. Abbott Frazar. 
Anas obscura , Black Duck. -Not common, i 
but a few pair found breeding on the islands; i 
the nests being generally placed upon the out- 
reaching branches of stunted spruces, which 
seldom attain at highest, above four feet. One 
nest was fully two hundred yards from the sea, j 
and another which contained nine eggs, was ; 
distant at least one hundred yards from the 
water. The natives say they return year after 
year to the same nest. I 
O.&O. XII. Feb.1887.p. /?. 
_ 2 ; r fUt S 1 
thirteen eggs of this Duck and hatched 
them all under a common hen, and at latest 
information all were living, awaiting the 
ignoble end of perishing at the block; 
'stC •fan*, fttiurt-tfbii, 
frtf. 
O.&O. IX,0ci.l884.p. Us- 
