
261 
and 10 days ahead of the long-term average. The earliest hatching date recorded 
for the ring-neck in the 17 years of these studies (on June 7) occurred this year. 
Water levels were moderately high at the start of nesting, with a very 
gradual run-off, and with no serious floods, A drought occurred during July and 
water levels dropped throughout the last half of the summer: however, by then the 
majority of the broods were of a Class II or Class III age and no adverse effects 
were noted, 
Nesting Success 
During the nesting study a total of 76 nests were located. All but four 
of these were of the two most important species in Maine--the black duck and the 
ring-neck. 
A total of 73 of the nests found were kept under observation until 
hatched or destroyed. Based on this sample, 56 of which hatched with 20 being 
failures, nesting success was 73 percent. This indicates a very successful nest- 
ing season, The figures for both the black duck and the ring-neck were substan- 
ially higher than the long-term average. 
In contrast to 1954 when the mink was the principal nest predator, the 
majority of losses this year were equally divided between raccoons and crows. 
Flood losses were unusually low. 
Further indications that 1955 was a successful nesting season were 
seen in the fact that clutch sizes were larger than usual, fewer renests were 
found, and the average size of black duck broods in the downy stage was the highest 
in 17 years. 
The Brood Season 
Data from brood counts are givenin Table Il. Figures were obtained 
on 190 complete broods which were classified by age, They show that the 1955 
brood sizes for all species in all three age classes were noticeably higher than 
usual. A single exception occurred in Class I ring-necks which averaged 7.6 a 
year ago and 7,4 this year. Despite this, brood figures for Class III ring-necks 
were almost a full bird higher this year (6.8 as contrasted with 5.9 in 1954). 
Black ducks likewise showed an appreciable gain in the Class III average (5.9 in 
1954 and 6.6 in 1955), but all three age classes of black ducks were noticeably 
above last year's figures. 
