Anas obscura 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. 
1894. It was getting almost too dark to shoot and I was beg inn*-: 
Sept. 12. ing to think of returning to the boats when against the sky 
towards the N.W. I saw a long dusky line advancing. It proved 
‘ 
to be the big flock of Black Ducks which I saw last evening. 
i 
Their approach was really imposing. There were more than fif*~> 
ty of them and they formed a line fully 100 yards long and 
stretched at right angles to the line of their flight. Thus 
they came all abreast, the stately birds. As they neared the 
marsh every wing, as if at a given signal, ceased its rapid 
pulsations and the great birds shot down on a steep incline / 
making a rushing sound similar and quite equal to^ that of a 
heavy gust of wind in a grove of pines. It was an exciting 
moment for it seems that I had chosen the very spot where the 
flock had intended to alight, and as the centre of the column 
charged directly at me and the wings closed in around me, I 
could not help feeling for an instant as if the birds were 
about to make a combined onslaught on me. 
1895. At Pine Hill Pond I quickly discovered a bird which I 
* 
Sept. 10. took at the time for a Wood Duck, but which afterwards proved 
to be a Black Duck, lying asleep with its head buried in its 
feathers on an inclining tree trunk fully eight feet above the 
level of the water. 
