THE WINTER DTJCK. 335 



peninsula between lakes Huron and Ontario, into the 

 great Georgian bay, I again came across this unknown 

 wild-fowl. 



There had been four or five nights of very sharp frost, 

 and ice had formed to the thickness of a dollar, even in 

 the river, which is swift, and in places much broken by 

 falls and rapids. "We had cleared the river, and had 

 entered the northern extremity of the lake, Simcoe, 

 paddling as fast as we could toward the village of 

 Orillia, with two canoes running on nearly parallel 

 lines, perhaps a hundred yards apart, when we suddenly 

 saw several large plumps of duck coming from the north. 

 There were, I should think, thirty or forty fowl in each 

 plump, and long before they were nearly within gun- 

 shot, I observed that their flight was in itself peculiar, 

 and unlike that of any fowl I had ever observed ; for 

 they wheeled and swooped frequently, more after the- 

 fashion of plovers, tattlers, or other shore-birds, than of 

 any species of duck with which I was previously ac- 

 quainted ; and these movements were the more conspic- 

 uous, on account of the broad white bars across their 

 wings, formed by the secondaries, which were alternate- 

 ly seen and lost at every motion. 



At length, one of the smallest flocks wheeled in be- 

 tween the two boats, and got the contents of three 

 double-barrels, beside the charges of two or more long 

 north-west Indian pieces. A good many birds were 

 knocked over, quite dead; and a good many more 



