Editor of O. & 0.: 
Knowing yon to be well acquainted with t he 
birds of this region, I am going to impose upon 
your time for a few moments to ask a question 
or two about the “Black Duck,” as we call 
it here, the Anas obscura , and to give you an 
observation which perhaps may be so well 
known to you that you will think it scarcely 
worth the trouble to answer. 
During the first two weeks in December, 
1890, I shot a good many of the above-named 
ducks upon a small stream in this vicinity, and 
upon two occasions, when the thermometer 
was very low, I found the bills of the ducks 
were a very bright orange yellow, and the feet 
were much more brilliant red. Saturday, De¬ 
cember 13th, I shot five of these birds and 
three, which were males, had these brilliant 
yellow hills. The temperature on this day was 
_ 5 ° at 7 a.m., and did not rise above +6° at 
any time during the day. On bringing the 
birds into the house and laying them on the 
rug before an open fire the bills and feet be¬ 
came their usual color. This has occurred to 
me several times this winter and only upon 
very cold days. 
Now I would like to ask if this is a usual 
occurrence, or was it only accidental that the 
cold weather and the color of the bills wore as 
above stated? I never in the course of my 
reading noticed any remark about the matter, 
and do not suppose it of much consequence, 
but never have I seen in such horny matter as 
the bill so complete a change in a few moments. 
I hope I have not troubled you too much, 
and that you will deign to answer some time 
when you have leisure. 
Arthur Talbot Lincoln , M.D. 
Dennysville, Me. 
[A few days since the writer had occasion to 
call on a party who had just received a number 
of Eider Ducks. As they lay spread out on 
a board the bright chrome bills of the males 
were very noticeable. Two days later when 
they came into our office not a trace of the 
color was to be seen; all had turned to the 
slaty shade. The bills of the Scoters, Wood 
Ducks, etc., all lose their brilliant color in a 
few hours after death.— Ed.] 
O&O.XVI, March. 1 891, P. 
BLACK DUCKS FROM A BATTERY 
grounds, in the evening many are shot wPilo 
ying up the course of the rivers to the ponds or rivpr 
SHF 1 
e / ‘ llwa y s , do > ™der ordinary circumstances 
The suooter by lying down or hiding behind a havstack 
wd get many good shots in a short time One of the 
■ Peaces that I ever knew m the vicinity of New Haven 
is on the Qummpiac River, just above “the brickyards ” 
where there are hundreds of acres of wild oats stretching 
far and wide, Where they feed every night. (It is also a 
most famous place for rail shooting in the fall). 
Many black ducks are shot in the winter by the shooter 
covering himself with a white sheet when the snow 
covers the shores, and also by lyino- on a bis- J? w 
on a blanket near the channel. When the ^ide^ises the 
ducks swim up the channel to feed on the roots of ti e 
sedge and to dig up with their bills the small lono- cl-ims 
that are found along the shores. S clams 
This practice of shooting black ducks in the dead of 
winter should be prohibited by law. The ducks are then 
miserably poor and rank in flavor. The black duck is too 
ffifithev ltS Se r aS n n ’ to be destr oyed in this way. In the 
fall they are fully as good, and many think better than 
the tame duck or the mallard. ’ tilan 
Alluding to the extreme wariness of the black duck T 
usual habite^a flock rflboutfifteen ' blac^dS were to ! 
lontw 6Very da f not umrethanthii^ reds from ' 
ongWharL nor more than fifteen rods from where the 
f' i ; &JN - R - depot now stands. Although men 
the dnckA Were ,?? Smg ever y few uiinutes on the wharf 
in the season *** “ 0 attenti ° n *° ife This was early 
Whether these ducks were reared near some farmhouse 
where they saw men and teams every day, with all the 
usual noises about a farmhouse, and were not disturbed 
and so had more confidence and faith in mankind than 
wfk < f ld S0< m af * erwal 'd, is more than I can say but it 
Th^r f 16 i lk ? th ® m ° st Probable solution of the question 
They fed and played about there “with such a shocking 
tameness as to attract considerable notice. And I am 
sorey to say (?) that I was the first one to destroy tCt 
But as all men and ducks find out sooner or later that 
they cannot put much faith in man. I thought it best to 
utter folly. leU mmdS ° f tBat ldea at once > and to see its 
th^ tlm ? 1 "p ad a battery, the same as those used on 
the Chesapeake Bay. I proposed to a storekeeper on Long 
Wharf, and lie was an old duck shooter, the bringffif 
down to his store of my battery, and there to launch it° 
and he to let his man' assist me and to pick up any ducks 
that I might shoot, which he agreed to do- but hp vp_ 
marked that “Their man would have no ducks to pick up ” 
and all that. ‘Who ever heard of black ducks being shot 
on then open feeding grounds from a battery.” Well the 
battery was launched and towed out to the place I selected 
llie decoys, about a dozen of white-winged coot decovs 
the nearest thing I had, were properly set. y ’ 
I lay down flat on my back with my head resting on a 
sandbag, so that I could just look over the edge^of the 
battery, and facing the mouth of the harbor. In less than 
an hour I saw the ducks coming, a half mile away. On 
they came, straight toward me, flying very high. I had 
made up my mind to shoot on the first reasonable chance 
As they came it seemed as though they eyed those old 
bufsligldrelltionsh^ 1010111 “ y they ° 0uld cla im 
1 hey flew past rather out of shooting distance, and cir¬ 
cled around toward Long Wharf; it looked to me as 
though it was my only chance, so I let go, and down came 
one. winged. The next moment I saw John, my dist¬ 
ant. coming m Ins sharpie to pick up the first “black duck 
m er shot on their open feeding grounds from a battery " 
He had a long chase as lie sailed partly on the water and 
partly on the mud, but he got him. 
„ J J ,r T “i ay 1 , Went again ? nd had the decoys set as 
^ ^ on niy back waiting for anything 
hr ^ L Uv l 
JnoducI?appp e “P or comedown. I w . 
f sdtthi° f bhck due 
I Wdthe r r,fff ight up, affiafi^ 
7’“ .came one, dead , Y me 
The wind being fYf,Y n< ' st ™ck with 
secured him. 8 ° labIe > he drifted wit] 
twift P Cn3 Ind sf tt T y ’ y ^-i«‘fln^th. 
, f.lSVweU afte! 6ft K 
I the right from n de IV J1 , J “.V first practice a 
[ a 'Ud the decoy went^ove^^of^ 
B. F. a 
