208 AMERICAN GAME. 



that season, but in size the latter were quite equal to the 

 mother bird. 



I consider the Summer Duck at all times rather a less 

 shy bird than its congeners, though it may that it is ow- 

 ing to the woody covert which, unlike others of its tribe, 

 it delights to frequent ; and which perhaps acts in some 

 degree as a screen to its pursuer ; but except on one 

 other occasion I never saw any thing like the tameness 

 of that brood. 



The other instance occurred nearly in the same place, 

 and in the same month, I think, of the ensuing year. I 

 was again out' summer cock shooting, and was crossing a 

 small, sluggish brook, of some twelve or fourteen feet 

 over, with my gun under my arm, on a pile of old rails, 

 which had been thrown into the channel by the hay^ 

 makers, to make an extemporaneous bridge for the hay 

 teams ; when on a sudden, to my very great wonder- 

 ment, and I must admit to my very considerable nuster- 

 ation likewise, almost to the pomt of tumbling me into 

 the mud, out got a couple of Wood Ducks from the rails, 

 literally under my feet, with a prodigious bustle of wings 

 and quacking. If I had not so nearly tumbled into the 

 stream, ten to one I should have shot too quickly and 

 missed them both; but the little effort to recover my 

 footing gave me time to get cool again, and I bagged 

 them both. One was again the old duck, the other a 

 young drake of that season. 



In the spring, the old duck selects her place in some 



