

D UCK-DE CO YS. 365 



pursuit, or turning attention from their nests and young ; but 

 few perhaps more than the Duck tribe, of which the following 

 may be adduced as an instance, from Captain Back's Narrative 

 of his Arctic Land Expedition, p. 249. One of his companions, 

 Mr. King, having killed a female Duck, fired again, and, as 

 he thought, disabled its companion, a fine Drake. Accordingly, 

 leaving the dead bird, which he had the mortification of seeing, 

 in a few minutes afterwards, carried off by one of the white- 

 headed Eagles, he waded into the water after the Drake, 

 which, far from being fluttered or alarmed, remained motion- 

 less, as if waiting to be taken up. Still, as he neared it, it 

 glided easily away through innumerable little nooks and 

 windings. Several times he extended his arm to catch it; 

 and having at last, with great patience, managed to coop it 

 up in a corner, from whence there appeared to be no escape, 

 he was triumphantly bending down to take it, when, to his 

 utter astonishment, after two or three flounders, it looked 

 around, cried " quack," and then flew off so strongly, that he 

 was convinced he never hit it at all. The object of the Drake 

 had clearly been to draw Mr. King away from his companion, 

 of whose fate it was unconscious ; indeed, so attached are 

 these birds at certain seasons, that it is no uncommon circum- 

 stance, when one has been shot, for the other, especially the 

 male, to linger about its struggling partner, exhibiting the 

 greatest distress, until either killed or frightened awa}'. 



