92 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



Long Island or the Jersey shores, where only I have followed 

 wild-fowl shooting. 



THE PIED DUCK. 



Fuligula Lahradora. — Vulgo, Skunk-Duck — Sand-Skoal Duck. 



This is a very much rarer species than the Duck last mentioned. 

 Its range does not extend south of Chesapeake Bay. It ascends 

 the Delaware River as high as Philadelphia, is met with in 

 greater or less numbers every year along the coasts of New 

 Jersey and Long Island, and frequents the shores of Massachu- 

 setts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, during the severest cold of winter. 

 It is a truly marine bird, seldom entering rivers, unless forced 

 by stress of weather to do so. Breeds in Labrador. Mr. Gi- 

 raud, in his " Birds of Long Island," states, that a few are killed 

 on that coast yearly, adding, " with us it is rather rare, chiefly 

 inhabiting the western side of the continent." In this, how- 

 ever, he differs from Mr. Audubon, who speaks of it as a purely 

 northern and eastern fowl, " never seen in the interior." On 

 Long Island it is called " the Skunk Duck," from some fancied 

 similarity in its colors. Mr. Wilson thus describes it : 



" This is rather a scarce species on our coasts, and is never 

 met with on fresh water lakes or rivers. It is called by some 

 gunners the Sand-Shoal Duck, from its habit of frequenting 

 sand-bars. Its principal food appears to be shell-fish, which it 

 procures by diving. The flesh is dry, and partakes considera- 

 bly of the nature of its food. It is only seen here during win- 

 ter ; most commonly early in the month of March, a few are 

 observed in our market. Of their principal manners, place, or 

 mode of breeding, nothing more is known. Latham observes, 

 that a pair in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, were brought 

 from Labrador. Having myself had frequent opportunities of 

 examining both sexes of these birds, T find that, like most 

 others, they are subject, when young, to a progressive change 



