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TllK f^UMMEll DUCK. 



Almost all the coloured plumage of this bird shows a play of colours with metallic 

 lustre. It has a pendent occipital crest of green and auricula purple, marked with two 

 narrow white lines, one of them terminating behind the eye, the other extending over the 

 eye to the bill. The fcnnale has a shorter crest, and the jjluniage is less vi\'id. 



" In Pennsylvania," says "Wilson, "the female usually begins to lay late in April, or 

 early in May. Instances have been known where the nest was constructed of a few sticks 

 laid in a fork of the branches ; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree is selected 

 for this purpose. On the 18th of Maj^ I visited a tree containing the nest of a summer 

 duck, on the banks of Tuckahoe river. New Jersey. It was an old, grotesque, white oak, 

 whose top had been torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the bank, about 

 twenty }ards from the water. In this hollow and broken top, and about six feet down 

 on the soft decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down, doubtless taken 

 from the breast of the bird. These eggs were of an exact oval shap?, less than those of 

 a hen, the surface exceedinglj' fine grained and of the highest polish, and slightly 

 yellowish, greatly resembling old polished i\ory." .... 



" This tree had been occupied probably by the same pair for four successive years 

 in breeding-time ; the person who gave me the information, and whose house was 

 within twenty or thirty yards of the tree, said that he had seen the female, the 

 spring preceding, carry down thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes. 

 She caught them in her bill by the wing 6r back of the neck, and landed them 

 safely at the foot of the tree, whence she afterwards led them to the water. Under 

 this same tree, at the time I visited it, a largo sloop lay on the stocks, nearly 

 finished ; the deck was not more than twelve feet distant from the nest ; yet, not- 

 withstanding the presence and noise of the workmen, the ducks wovdd not abandon 

 their old breeding-place, but continued to pass out and in as if no person had been near. 

 The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and kept watch while the female was 

 laying, and often also while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hollow space at 

 the root of the same tree to lay and hatch her young in. Tlic summer duck seldom flies 

 m flocks of more than three or four individuals togetlicr, but most commonly in jjairs or 

 singly." The food of this elegant bird consists of acorns, grain, the seeds of plants, and 

 insects. 



• UenJronessa Sponsa. 



