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The Black Duck Controversy Again. — During the last two years, 
1911 and 1912, I have been much interested in a pair of wild Black Ducks, 
apparently adult birds, that nested near a shallow pond back in the woods 
at my place, Newton Centre, Mass. In 1911 they raised a brood of ten 
young flappers, and while in 1912 they again nested there, I am unable to 
say what became of the young, as I was forced to let the water out of the 
pond before the time of their hatching. The old birds from their habits 
were very apparently the same pair that returned each spring, and they 
were of the so-called green-legged kind. 
While at Monomoy Island, Mass., during the last two weeks of October, 
1912, with a couple of friends, we shot a number of Black Duck of the red- 
legged kind (there. were no green legs), among which were several that were 
apparently young birds; and on October 25 there fell to one of our guns 
a female, which from its size, plumage, and general characteristics, was so 
evidently young that there could be no possible doubt about it. I person¬ 
ally skinned and sexed this specimen, which showed its immaturity in all 
those ways familiar to those who handle birds. It must have been one of a 
very late brood, for its' upper mandible was a steel gray, and had not yet 
begun to show those shades of light olive green of the adult bird, and the 
‘ nail ’ at the end of the upper mandible was hardly darker than the rest 
of the bill, and nothing like the dark and glossy black of the adult bird. 
The lower mandible was pinkish and still quite soft and pliable, as in the 
case of very young ducks, and the bird, had red legs. 
Let us hope that this is the final nail in the coffin of the Black Duck 
controversy, and that it may hold so securely that even Dr. Dwight may 
not again resurrect the corpse in some post-mortem or pre-cherubic plum¬ 
age.— F. II. Kennabd, Boston, Mass. 
■ Xxx.^vt., /o6< 
