LONG-TAILED DUCK. 455 



bays and sheltered inlets, and in calm and foggy weather 

 we hear the loud and blended nasal call reiterated for hours 

 from the motley multitude. There is something in the 

 sound like the honk of the goose, and, as far as words can 

 express a subject so uncouth, it resembles the guttural 

 syllables ^ogh ougJi egJi, and then 'ogh ogh ogh ough egh, 

 given in a ludicrous drawling tone ; but still with all the 

 accompaniments of scene and season, this humble harbin- 

 ger of spring, obeying the feelings of nature, and pouring 

 forth his final ditty before his departure to the distant north, 

 conspire with the novelty of the call, to please rather than 

 disgust those happy few who may be willing ' to find good in 

 every thing.' This peculiar cry, is well known to the abo- 

 riginal sons of the forest, and among the Crees the speciea 

 is called ^ Hah-ha-way , so much like the syllables I have 

 given above, that many might imagine my additions no more 

 than a version of the same. But I may perhaps be allowed 

 to say, that, the notes I had taken on the subject were 

 made two years previous to the publication of Dr. Richard- 

 son's Zoology, from whence I learn this coincidence of the 

 name and sound as given by the aborigines of the north. 

 This Duck is no less known to the Canadian voyagers, 

 who have celebrated it in their simple effusions by the name 

 of the *'C«cca?^ee," 



In the course of the winter the Long-Tailed Ducks wan- 

 der out in the bays and inlets nearly if not quite, to the 

 extremity of the United States coasts ; and in the spring, 

 voyaging along the unrufliled bosom of the great Missis- 

 sippi, with the many thousands of other water fowls, which 

 penetrate by this route into the interior, we also find among 

 the crowding throng, some small flocks of the present 

 species who proceed as far as the banks of the Missouri.* 



* Mr. Say. 



