210 AMERICAN GAME. 



hood of which latter place I have myself met with it in 

 October. It rarely visits the sea-shore, or salt marshes, 

 its favorite 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 Potomac. On the 10th of January I met 

 with two on a creek near Petersburg!!, 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 18th of 

 May I visited a tree containing the nest of a Summer 

 Duck, on the banks of the Tuckahoe Eiver, New Jersey. 

 It was an old, grotesque white-oak, whose top had been 

 torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the 

 bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hol- 

 low and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, 

 decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with 

 down, doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. 

 These eggs were of an exact oval shape, less than those 

 of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, and of 

 the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resem- 



