64 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 





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Audubon's account of it is apparently in part conjectural, and in part from hearsay 



testimony, and must be received with caution. He did not meet with any when in 



Labrador ; but his son, John W. Audu- 

 bon, on a visit to Blanc Sablon, July 28, 

 1833, found several deserted nests on the 

 top of low tangled fir-bushes, and was 

 told by the English clerk of the fishing 

 establishment there that these belonged 

 to the Pied Duck — the present species. 

 The nests had much the appearance of 

 those of the Eider, were very large, 

 formed externally of fir-twigs, inter- 

 nally of dried grasses, and lined with 

 down. From this Audubon inferred that 

 the Pied Duck breeds earlier than most 

 of its tribe. It is a hardy bird, and at 

 the time Audubon wrote was seen during 

 the most severe cold of winter along the 

 coasts of Nova Scotia, Maine, and Mas- 

 sachusetts. Professor Maccullock, of 

 Pictou, procured several of this species 

 in that neighborhood ; and the pair fig- 

 ured by Audubon, and now in the col- 

 lection of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 were killed by Daniel AVebster on Vine- 

 yard Island, on the coast of Massachu- 

 setts, and by him given to Audubon. 

 The bird which the latter figured as a 

 female is now believed to have been a 

 young male. 

 Audubon states that this Duck ranged as far south as the Chesapeake, near the 



influx of the James Kiver ; that he found them in the Baltimore market, and that it 



was met with every winter along the coasts 



of Long Island and New Jersey ; that it en- 

 tered the Delaware Eiver, and ascended as 



far as Philadelphia ; and that a bird-stuffer 



of Camden caught many fine specimens 



of this species with fish-hooks baited Avith 



mussels. 



Mr. P. Turnbull, in his List of the Birds 



of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 



published in 1869, gives this Duck as being 



rare, but states that it is seen in small 



numbers every season. 



A writer in the "Naturalist," for Au- 

 gust, 1868, states that a single individual of 



this species had been shot the winter before 



on Long Island. 



Mr. Giraud, in 1843, speaks of this Duck 



as being then very rare on Long Island, where it was known to hunters as the " Skunk 



Male. 



Female. 



