tone Dnt Bb O NEIB Lin Berl N 25 
CAN THIS HAVE BEEN 
A TRULY WILD BAHAMA DUCK? 
Our Story Begins 
Last Summer With 
Arrival of a Letter: 
“Mr. Graber of the Illinois Nat- 
ural History Survey suggested my 
writing the AUDUBON BULLETIN 
about my downing of a Bahama 
Duck during the duck season here 
in 1968. 
“On the opening weekend we 
shot this single bird, believing it 
Was a teal. When we retrieved it, 
We realized it was unlike any duck 
fl fist 
Our Next Step Would Be 
A Cross-Check With 
A Qualified Expert: 
“That the bird in the picture is 
a Bahama Duck (Anas bahamensis), 
we'd ever seen before. 
eDuckily. sl rani gacross) ca Yocal 
man that does some taxidermy 
work, and I had him mount the 
duck, as you see in the photograph. 
Then I took the specimen to a 
biologist at Knox College, and he 
identified it as a Bahama Duck. 
“Our hunting site is the Vermont 
Gun Club, located on Stuart Lake 
and the Illinois River, north of 
Browning, III.” 
—D. K. Wilcox 
P.O. Box 928 
Decatur, II. 
fi ck 
I have little doubt, although any 
doubt would concern the origin of 
this individual—and therefore va- 
lidity of a record. 
“If this was a truly wild bird, 
