Wood-Duck and Wood-Duck Shooting 207 



black ; tail, dark glossy green above ; below, dusky ; 

 primaries, dusky, silvery without, tipped with violet 

 blue ; secondaries, greenish blue, tipped with white ; 

 wing coverts, violet-blue, tipped with black; legs 

 and feet, yellowish. Total length, 18-20 inches. 



Female. Head, slightly crested ; crown, dark 

 purple ; behind eye, a bar of white ; chin and throat, 

 white; head and neck, dark drab; breast, dusky 

 brown, marked with large triangular spots of white ; 

 back, dark glossy bronze brown, with some gold and 

 greenish reflection ; speculum, greenish, like the 

 male ; the fine pencillings of the sides and the hair- 

 like tail coverts are wanting ; the tail also is shorter. 



While it is extremely difficult to give anything 

 like an accurate pen picture of a fowl which glitters 

 with metallic lustre that changes from bronze to 

 purple and golden green with every play of light, 

 enough has been said to bear out the statement that 

 the wood-duck is exceedingly beautiful. As it may 

 easily be tamed, it is not at all unlikely that within a 

 few years it will be an attractive pet upon many 

 private waters, where certainly it is well worthy of a 

 place. It is a summer resident, its range being 

 North America, and it winters in the Southern 

 states. It usually comes North early in April and 

 at once seeks ponds, creeks, and small rivers bor- 

 dered with more or less standing timber which 

 offers in hollow trunks, or large limbs, the favorite 

 sites for the nests. The note of this duck is a softly 

 sweet, rather long-drawn " Peet peet? the alarm 

 note a musical " Oe-eek-oe-eek f " 



When a pair of wood-ducks find water and a 

 hollow tree to suit, little time is lost in preparing the 



