SPECIES 10. J&MZS SPONSd. 



SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. 



[Plate LXX. Fig. 3, Male.'] 



Le Canard d'Ett, BRISS. vi, p. 351. 11. pi. 32. jig. 2.Le beau 

 Canard huppt, BUFF, ix, p. 245. PI. Enl. 980. 981. &ummer 

 i)wcfc, CATESBY, i, pi. 97. EDW. pi. 101. Arct. Zool. No. 943. 

 LATH. Syn. in, p. 546. PEALE'S Museum, No. 2872, m/e, 

 2873, /emote.* 



THIS most beautiful of all our Ducks, has probably no supe- 

 rior among its whole tribe for richness and variety of colours. 

 It is called the Wood Duck, from the circumstance of its breed- 

 ing in hollow trees; and the Summer Duck, from remaining 

 with us chiefly during the summer. It is familiarly known in 

 every quarter of the United States, from Florida to Lake On- 

 tario, in the neighbourhood of which latter place I have myself 

 met with it in October. It rarely visits the seashore, or salt 

 marshes; its favourite haunts being the solitary deep and muddy 

 creeks, ponds, and mill dams of the interior, making its nest 

 frequently in old hollow trees that overhang the water. 



The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and 

 many of the West India islands. During the whole of our winters 

 they are occasionally seen in the states south of the Potowmac. 

 On the tenth of January I met with two on a creek near Peters- 

 burgh in Virginia. In the more northern districts, however, 

 they are migratory. In Pennsylvania the female usually begins 

 to lay late in April or early in May. Instances have been known 

 where the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a fork of 

 the branches; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree is 

 selected for this purpose. On the eighteenth of May I visited 



* Anas sponsa, GMEL. Syst. i, p. 539, No. 43.Ind, Oin. p. 876, No. 97, 

 VOL. III. S S 



