UPLAND SHOOTING. *113 



feathers : the eggs, eight in number, lying on the former, sur- 

 rounded with the down and some feathers of the bird to the 

 height of about three inches. The internal diameter of the nest 

 was about six inches, and its walls were nearly three in thick- 

 ness. Tiie female was sitting, but tlcw off in silence as he ap- 

 proached. The situation was a clump of tall, slender grass, on 

 a rather sandy ridjie, more than a hundred yards from the near- 

 est water, but surrounded by partially dried salt marshes. On 

 the same island, in the course of several successive days, we 

 saw many of these Ducks, which, by tlieir actions, showed that 

 they also had nests. I may here state my belief, that the Gad- 

 wall, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, American Widgeon 

 and Spoon-billed Duck, all breed in that country, as I observed 

 them there late in May, when they were evidently paired. How 

 far this fact may harmonize with the theories of writers respect- 

 ing the migration o( birds in general, is more than I can at pre- 

 sent stop to consider. I have found the Black Ducks breeding 

 on lakes near the Mississippi, as far up as to its confluence with 

 the Ohio, as well as in Pennsylvania and New Jersey ; and 

 every one acquainted with its habits will tell you that it rears 

 its young in all the Eastern States intervening between that last 

 mentioned and the St. Lawrence. It is even found on the Co- 

 lumbia River, and on the streams of the Rocky Mountains ; but 

 as Dr. Richardson has not mentioned his having observed it in 

 Hudson's Bay, or farther north, we may suppose that it does not 

 visit those countries. 



" As many of the nests found in Labrador differed from the 



one mentioned above, I will give you an account of them : In 



several instances, we found them imbedded in the deep moss, at 

 the distance of a few feet, or a few yards from the water • they 

 were composed of a great quantity of dry grass and other ve^-e- 

 table substances ; and the eggs were always placed directly on 

 this bed, without the intervention of the down and feathers 

 which, however, surrounded them, and which, as I observed 

 the bird always uses to cover them, when she is about to leave 

 them for a time. The eggs are two inches and a quarter in 



