134 THE S U M M E B DUCK. 



becomes familiar. They have even been so far domestical d 

 as to run about at large in the barn-yard like ordinary fowli. 

 In France they have also been acclimated and tamed, and 

 have bred in this condition. 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 



The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and 

 many of the West India islands. During the whcfle of our 

 winters, they are occasionally seen in the states south of 

 the Potomac. On the 10th of January (says Wilson), ] 

 met with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. In 

 the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. 

 In Pennsylvania, the female usually begins to lay late in 

 \pril 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 May 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 yards from the water. In this hollow 

 and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, de- 

 cayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down, 

 doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. These eggs 

 were of an exact oval shape, less than those of a hen the 

 Mirfiioe exceedingly fine grained^ and of the highest pc^sh, 



