482 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
August, 1918 
favorite place of the old timers, and it is 
today a noted duck ground. The increase 
of black ducks was noted first in these 
shore marshes. They always got a slightly 
larger proportion of the black ducks at 
Wild Fowl Bay, Tobico or Quanicassee, 
three big marshes along the shores of the 
Bay, then we did in the river shooting; 
but even there the Mallard predominated 
fully eight to one. In our northern Michi¬ 
gan lakes, the black duck was a rare bird 
indeed. 
For the last twenty or twenty-five years 
I have been noticing the increase in black 
ducks. By that I mean, that the percentage 
of black ducks to mallards is far greater 
than it used to be. Of course, there are a 
great many less mallards, and whether the 
black ducks have held their own better than 
the mallards to increase the percentage, I 
do not know', but surely the black ducks 
have increased while the mallards have de¬ 
creased until today the position is almost 
reversed. We get at least eight black ducks 
to two mallards at Tobico. In the Saginaw 
River marshes the percentage is fully as 
great, and the lakes in northern Michigan 
have run almost entirely to black ducks in¬ 
stead of mallards. At. St. Helens I am told 
the proportion is at least seven out of ten. 
In Otsego County, w'here black ducks were 
never heard of twenty-five years ago, they 
frequent the little ponds and lagoons in 
regular black duck fashion. The inland 
lakes in the fall will have two or three 
flocks of black ducks staying until the 
freeze-up. 
Recently Bradshaw, the Game Guardian of 
Saskatchewan, wrote that they had this last 
fall gotten the first black duck recorded in 
Saskatchewan, and it was mounted in their 
collection. 
T. E. Douglass, of Lovells, Mich., writes 
me that “the black ducks have been up here 
for years, but for the last few years they 
are getting more plentiful. I have seen on 
the river flocks of as many as fifty ducks, 
mostly black mallards, with only a few 
gray mallards and green head mallards in 
with them. 
“At St. Helens the black duck runs 
about ten to one of gray ducks. Sometimes 
thousands of ducks come in, nearly all of 
them black ducks. Toward the last of the 
season a good many of green heads seem 
to hang around here later than black 
ducks.” St. Helens is in Roscommon Coun¬ 
ty, a hundred miles north of Saginaw. 
I know from talks that I have had with 
sportsmen in Wisconsin and Minnesota, 
that during the past twenty years there has 
been quite a noticeable increase of black 
ducks westward. 
Another thing, in the Northwest, it seems 
to me that the canvasbacks are holding their 
own better than almost any other kind of 
duck. At least, it seems to me that the 
proportion of canvasback to other ducks is 
much greater now than it was when I first 
went into Kidder County, N. D., shooting 
in 1884, and greater than when I went for 
my first shooting in Saskatchewan in 1905. 
But that is only an impression and is not 
based upon actual figures. Maybe we did 
not know how to hunt canvasbacks so well 
in the old days as we do now, but my score 
book of the early days shows a vastly less 
per centage of canvasbacks than the same 
record of recent years. W. B. Mershon. 
M R. W. B. MEETCH, of Harrisburg, 
(Florida duck) a migratory bird? 
Pa., writes: “Is Anas fulvigula 
We have had quite an argument about it; 
what do you know about the matter?” 
The Florida duck, which is a small, 
southern representative of our black duck 
(Anas rubripes), apparently does not mi¬ 
grate. Its restricted range extends only 
from the southerly part of the peninsula 
of Florida westward approximately to the 
I—The Woodcock 
HIS is one of the earliest birds to move 
north in the spring. The late Feb¬ 
ruary sun rises high enough above 
the alders to soften the water-soaked 
ground in sheltered nooks between them, 
even though the country be snow or ice¬ 
bound. Any time after this the first wood¬ 
cock may put in an appearance. During 
the daytime one comes upon them singly, 
usually on dry wooded slopes where their 
mottled plumage escapes observation on 
the dead leaves, until they whirr into the 
air with a peculiar twittering sound caused 
by the narrow stiffened feathers at the 
front of the wing. In March and April, on 
mild evenings beginning at dusk, one often 
finds two or more birds at some open field 
adjacent to boggy cover going through 
their peculiar aerial song. After calling at 
intervals from the ground, a loud nasal 
“peent,” the bird springs into the air and 
spirals up, up on twittering wings until it 
looks no bigger than a bumblebee against 
the gloom; then it drops in a series of 
plunges, each one accompanied by a mu¬ 
sical “tweet, twit, twit,” apparently vocal, 
to swerve down finally and alight, perhaps 
at one’s very feet. 
The woodcock’s nest, a mere hollow in 
the leaves, often in plain view, is wonder¬ 
fully concealed by the color of the sitting 
bird. She has such faith in this conceal¬ 
ment that she allows herself almost to be 
touched before leaving the eggs. At all 
seasons of the year the birds are more or 
mouth of the Mississippi River, and the 
fact that it is a permanent resident in the 
ponds and fresh water sloughs of this 
coastal region, where it has been hunted 
rather intensively, has resulted in a serious 
diminution in its numbers. Flocks of 
Florida ducks, especially the males, doubt¬ 
less make more or less extended flights in 
the autumn to favorable centers of food 
supply, but we have no evidence of a regu¬ 
lar migration. 
less solitary and nocturnal, though confined 
to the shelter of the woodlands only in the 
daytime. 
II— The Robin Snipe or Knot 
T HIS bird breeds in circumpolar regions 
and migrates south along the coasts 
in all parts of the world. It is of 
medium size, short-legged, and of stockier 
build than the larger shore birds. A strong, 
swift flier, it has no difficulty in keeping 
up with its occasional associate, the larger 
Black-breast Plover. Though it also mig¬ 
rates along the coastwise meadows, it is 
more often found on ocean beaches than 
many of its relatives, especially in winter 
and when on its northward spring migra¬ 
tion. Correlated with this habit, its colors 
are unusually pale. The darker plumaged 
Yellowlegs, Dowitcher, Krieker or Grass 
Snipe, and Jack Curlew, for instance, are 
much less frequently seen away from the 
marshes. In summer adult birds have the 
underparts rich brick-red, whence the name 
Robin Snipe; the pale upper parts plus 
white under parts, together with their size 
and stocky build, will identify young birds 
and fall adults. Its whistled notes are low- 
pitched with a peculiar twang. In places 
where the Robin Snipe used to afford good 
shooting, it has now become scarce, but 
large flocks still congregate on the Florida 
beaches. 1 
The eggs of the Knot are a trophy much 
sought by Arctic explorers, very few of 
them ever having been taken. 
NOTES ON SHORE BIRDS 
By J. T. N. 
The woodcock’s nest is concealed by the color of the sitting bird 
