204: AMERICAN GAME. 



from its native haunts. I think, however, that in the 

 United States it is perhaps better known under its other 

 appellation of Wood Duck ; and I am not prepared to 

 say, although the former is the specific name adopted by 

 all naturalists, that the latter is not the better, as the 

 more distinctive title, and applying to a more remarka- 

 ble peculiarity of the bird. For it, alone, so far as I 

 know, of the Duck family, is in the habit of perching 

 and roosting on the upper branches of tall trees, near 

 water-courses, and of making its nest in the holes and 

 hollows of old trunks, overhanging sequestered streams 

 or woodland pools, often at a great height above the sur- 

 face of the water. 



The Summer Duck is the most gayly attired of the 

 whole family ; it has, moreover, a form of very unusual 

 elegance, as compared with other "ducks ; and a facility 

 of flight, and a command of itself on the wing, most un- 

 like to the ponderous, angular flapping of the rest of its 

 tribe, wheeling with a rapidity and power of pinion, ap- 

 proaching in some degree to that of the swallow, in and 

 out among the branches of the gnarled and tortuous pin- 

 oaks, whose shelter it especially affects. ' 



From two very fine specimens, male and female, now 

 before me, I take the following description ; 



Drake, in full summer plumage. Length from tip of 

 bill to tip of tail, 21 inches. Length of wing, 9 inches. 

 Bill, 1 1-5 inch. Tarsus, 1 J. Middle toe, 2 inches. Body 

 long, delicately shaped, rounded. Head small, finely 



