OF NORTH CAROLINA. 243 



The little gray gull is of a curious gray color, 

 and abides near the sea. He is about the bigness 

 of a whistling plover, and delicate food. 



"We have the little dipper or fisher that catches 

 fish so dexterously J the same as you have in the 

 islands of Scilly. 



"We have of the same ducks and mallards with 

 green heads, in great flocks. They are accounted 

 the coarsest sort of our water fowl. 



The black duck is full as large as the other, and 

 good meat. She stays with us all the summer 

 and breeds. These are made tame by some, and 

 prove good domestics. 



"We have another duck that stays with us all the 

 summer. She has a great topping, is pied and 

 very beautiful. She builds her nest in a wood- 

 peckers hole, very often sixty or seventy feet high. 



Whistling ducks. Towards the mountains in 

 the hilly country on the west branch of Cape Fair 

 inlet, we saw great flocks of pretty pied ducks that 

 whistled as they flew, or as they fed. I did not 

 kill any of them. 



Scarlet-eyed ducks. We killed a curious sort 

 of ducks in the country of the Esaw Indians, which 

 were of many beautiful colors. Their eyes were 

 red, having a red circle of flesh for their eyelids, 

 and were very good to eat. 



The blue wings are less than a duck, but fine 

 meat. These are the first fowls that appear to us 

 in the fall of the leaf, coming then in great flocks, 



