Anas obscura. 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. Evening flight of Ducks. 
1894. Late in the afternoon a flock of eight Ducks which I took 
Sept.9. to be Scoters came flying up the Lake and alighted about mid¬ 
way between Pine and Moose Points. Jim and I started for them 
at once but they proved to be Black Ducks. They alighted, a- 
gain, in the river and when we reached Richardson's Carry a 
very large flock rose and after circling about dropped in the 
Lake several hundred yards out. For nearly an hour they 
floated and swam about on the smooth water; then they started 
for the shore but they did -not come near us. A single bird, 
however, came flying in through the Carry and I dropped it 
into the rushes where Jim quickly found it. 
Fof’ the next half hour there was scarce a minute when one 
or more Black Ducks were not in sight. Singly, in pairs, in 
small bunches, or in flocks of twenty to forty they came high 
and low from every direction, wheeled and circled against the 
bright western sky and then alighted in the marsh. Such a 
quacking and plashing as they madel The entire marsh seemed alive 
with them. Yet I did not get another shot. At frequent intervals 
we heard the squealing cry (a murmuring whistle it may be called) 
of Wood Ducks and there were incessant calls from various waders 
among which I recognized that of the Golden Plover, Grass—bird, 
( T. maculata ). Summer Yellow-legs, Semipalmated Sandpiper and 
Solitary Sandpiper. 
