214 AMERICAN GAME. 



net, not far from Morristown, in New Jersey, which is sin- 

 gularly adapted for the rearing and domesticating these 

 ferce natura; since it has, immediately adjoining the trim 

 and regular gardens, a long and large tract of beautiful 

 wild shrubbery, full of rare evergreens, and interspersed 

 with bright, cool springs and streamlets feeding many 

 ponds and reservoirs, where they can feed, and sport, and 

 breed, as undisturbed as in the actual wilderness ; while 

 the adjacent country being all tame and highly culti- 

 vated, they have no inducement to stray from their 

 abode. 



Beside Summer Ducks, Mr. Dickinson had at the 

 period of my visit, Dusky Ducks, better known as Black 

 Ducks, Green-winged Teal, Golden-eyes, and, I think, 

 "Widgeon; but the Summer Ducks were by far the 

 tamest, as the Dusky Ducks were the wildest of the com- 

 pany. I should long ago have attempted to naturalize 

 them on my own place, but that a large river, the 

 Passaic, washing the lower end of my lawn and garden, 

 from which it would not be possible to exclude them, I 

 have felt that it is useless to attempt it, the rather that 

 there is a large patch of wild-rice immediately adjoining 

 me, which would tempt them to the water, whence they 

 would drift away with the current or the tide, and be lost 

 or shot in no time. 



The best time for shooting and for eating these fowl is 

 late in October, when the acorns and beech-mast, of both 

 of which they are inordinately fond, lie thick and ripe 



