ANAS OBSCURA. DUSKY DUCK, OR BLACK DUCK. 



USKY or black ducks are known to all 

 our sea-shore shooters, and innumerable 

 quantities are brought to the Philadelphia 

 markets. They meet with ready sale, 

 althoufrh their flesh is far inferior to that of 

 many other varieties of wild fowl. They 

 are better known as the black duck, and are 

 " '^^"^ shot on the salt marshes of the Delaware. 



They are very wary, and will not stool. 

 They feed on the small bivalves that are so abundant in these 

 ■waters, as also along the shores of the creeks and inlets of the Mid- 

 dle States. Black ducks swim and fly with great velocity : their 

 notes resemble those of the mallard, but their flesh is much inferior. 

 As before stated, wild fowl rise almost universally against the 

 ■wind; black ducks, however, are an exception to this general rule, 

 as they spring indifferently either with or against the wind. 



Numbers of black ducks are killed by the gunners lying in wait 

 for them in the route of their return from the sea to the marshes 



to feed after night. This kind of shooting is termed ^^ dusking," 

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