326 ANATIDJJ. 



species was also found by Captain Cook at Nootka Sound, 

 on the north-west coast of America." 



Mr. Audubon's account furnishes many interesting par- 

 ticulars, and a portion of it is as follows : " While pro- 

 ceeding towards the sterile country of Labrador, in 1833, 

 on board the Ripley, I found the waters of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence alive with Ducks of different species. The 

 nearer we approached the coast, the more numerous did 

 they become ; and of the many kinds that presented them- 

 selves to our anxious gaze, the Surf Duck was certainly not 

 the least numerous. It is true that in the noble bays of 

 our own coast, in the Sound, between New York and the 

 Hook, on the broader waters of the Chesapeake, and be- 

 yond them to the mouths of the Mississippi, I had seen 

 thousands of Surf Ducks ; but the numbers that passed 

 the shores of Labrador, bound for the far north, exceeded 

 all my previous conceptions. For more than a week after 

 we had anchored in the lovely harbour of Little Macatina, 

 I had been anxiously searching for the nest of this species, 

 but in vain. At length I found that a few pairs had 

 remained in the neighbourhood, and one morning, while 

 in the company of Captain Emery, searching for the nests 

 of the Red-breasted Merganser, over a vast oozy and 

 treacherous fresh-water marsh, I suddenly started a female 

 Surf Duck from her treasure. We were then about five 

 miles distant from our harbour, from which our party had 

 come in two boats, and fully five and a half miles from 

 the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The marsh was 

 about three miles in length. The nest was snugly placed 

 amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass, and raised fully 

 four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of 

 withered and rotten weeds, the former being circularly 

 arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded cavity, 

 six inches in diameter, by two and a half in depth. The 



