6* THE SAVAMPS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



to time will bring her at last within ten yards of you, and not unfrequently 

 attended by her whole brood ; and if a man cannot in this way provide a good 

 Christmas dinner for himself and his friends, he does not deserve ever 

 to be permitted to partake of a roasted Turkey. 



While spending some time amongst the Indian islands, and the Rice 

 Lakes in the Canadas, where ducks were very numerous, particularly the 

 Wood Duck, (Anas sponsa), I was let into the secret of how to bring them 

 within such a distance as proved fatal to many of them; and this was effected, 

 after shooting three or four, by placing them in a creek close beside each 

 other, in the attitude of swimming, the head supported from below by a rod 

 stuck into the mud, the point of it being thrust into the base of the under 

 mandible, and as I lay concealed in a small flat boat amongst the rice, I 

 could kill just as many as I wished. 



Bitterns of great size and beauty, occasionally passing, came in for a share 

 of what was going; the Loons [Cohjmhus glacialis,) or Great Northern Divers, 

 which I w^as told were numerous at certain seasons, I had no opportunity of 

 seeing ; but in judging from the bottoms of many seats which I found covered 

 with their skins, I had no reason to doubt the statement; and this Heathen 

 substitute, to my taste, Avas quite a triumph over the Morocco and hair cloth 

 of modern contrivance. 



The (Oallinula) Water Hens were numerous ; and the Musk Rat (Fiber 

 Zibethicus) I met occasionally with; not being prepared for meeting such an 

 overgrown specimen, as I supposed, of an old acquaintance, my astonishment 

 was naturally great on picking out of a marsh one which I had shot : an 

 observation from a person who accompanied me settled my surprise, by 

 remarking that I stared as if I had never seen a Musk Rat before : and in 

 this he was right. The number of dead shells which I found strewed in 

 every direction by the sides of the marshes, and deposited occasionally upon 

 tufts of grass, I was told upon inquiry, were the work of this rat, which 

 corresponds admirably Afitli many of the habits of the Racoon (Procyon lotor) 

 in this respect, and also of the common Hog; all of which are formidable 

 competitors of the most enthusiastic conchologists ; and many fresh water 

 shells, which there would be difficulty in otherwise obtaining, are fished up 

 by these collectors and cracked upon the shores; which, in my opinion, 

 accounts for many mutilated specimens that find their way into this country. 

 On a shelling excursion which I once made with Mr. Clark, in Ohio, a 

 gentleman well known by reputation to some present, we came upon a whole 

 herd of swine fishing, and which, from his apparent indignation, I have no 

 doubt he would have gladly destroyed in the most wholesale way. I must 

 pass over a long catalogue of other families, such as Racoons, Snakes, 

 Skunks, Opossums, Wood Chucks, Lizards, Passenger Pigeons, Pelicans, 

 Whooping Cranes, and Humming Birds, &c., &c., all of which I bagged 

 during my excursion; reserving the particulars for some future occasion. 



