SPECIES 9. ANAS OBSCURA. 



DUSKY DUCK. 

 [Plate LXXIL Fig. 5.] 



Jlrct. Zool. No. 469. LATH. %n. in, p. 545. PEALE'S Museum, 

 No. 2880. 



THIS species is generally known along the seacoast of New 

 Jersey and the neighbouring country by the name of the Black 

 Duck, being the most common and most numerous of all those 

 of its tribe that frequent the salt marshes. It is only partially 

 migratory. Numbers of them remain during the summer, and 

 breed in sequestered places in the marsh, or on the sea islands 

 of the beach. The eggs are eight or ten in number, very near- 

 ly resembling those of the domestic duck. Vast numbers, how- 

 ever, regularly migrate farther north on the approach of spring. 

 During their residence here in winter they frequent the marsh- 

 es, and the various creeks and inlets with which those exten- 

 sive flats are intersected. Their principal food consists of those 

 minute snail shells so abundant in the marshes. They occasion- 

 ally visit the sandy beach in search of small bivalves, and on 

 these occasions sometimes cover whole acres with their num- 

 bers. They roost at night in the shallow ponds, in the middle 

 of the salt marsh, particularly on Islands, where many are 

 caught by the foxes. They are extremely shy during the day; and 

 on the most distant report of a musquet, rise from every quar- 

 ter of the marsh in prodigious numbers, dispersing in every di- 

 rection. In calm weather they fly high, beyond the reach of 

 shot; but when the wind blows hard, and the gunner conceals 

 himself among the salt grass in a place over which they usual- 

 ly fly, they are shot down in great numbers, their flight being 

 then low. Geese, Brant, and Black Duck are the common game 



