175 
186^ 
Querquedula discors. 
Middlesex county, Mass. 
May 4, 
Saw an adult male flying over the Brickyard Swamp. 
June 8, 
Shot a male in the perfect breeding plumage in the 
Brickyard Sv/aunp. He v/as floated motionless near the 
middle of a small pool and vras alone. The white cros- 
ent before the eye vras very conspicuous in life. 
Sopt.19, 
These pretty little Ducks have been very abundant 
here this autumn; I have shot many ©n the Hresh Pond 
swamps where they frequent the smaller poikda holes and 
even ditches, rarely visiting the larger sheets of water 
They huddle close together while swimming, and feed by 
aimmersing the head and nock like the mallard. At times 
when swimnlng they jerk the head with every motion of 
the feet. They rise from the vrater with a single 
quick spring, and when fairly under vray fly swiftly. 
When about to alight they invariably circled several 
times around the place and finally plump dovrn almost 
exactly like a Snipe, They quack like a Duck, and 
also utter a harsh calac, but their crmmonest note i .«5 a 
soft, whispering tv/itter. 
Oct. 10. 
Shot one. 
• 24. 
One shot on Fresh Pond, the last. 
1871. 
Oct, 4. 
One on Concord River, 
1874. 
Sopt. 39. 
A wing-broken one v/hich fell in a brook eluded my 
dog by diving, so successfully that he v/as unable to 
catch her, fllne of her v/ings was broken but as she 
swam under v/ator I distinctly sav/ that she used the other; 
after a long dive she v/ould often swim for some distance 
on the surface v/ith her head and neck stretched out flat 
and her body so deeply sunk that only the line of the 
back v/as visible. 
18'75. 
Sept. 5. 
Two on a mud-flat in Fresh Pond. It is said that 
thay are the survivors of six that appeared there this 
morning. 
1876. 
Aug. 30. 
. Maynard found a flock of about a dozen in a little 
pond in Waltham (on Shade St. opposite the Gore Place) 
and |:ill 0 d tv/o of them. 
Sept, 11, 
1879. 
Oct. lo. 
Saw two shot in Bird’s Pond. 
A single bird on Concord River. 
