386 ANATID^E. 



sion gun. As to shooting at it with a flint-lock, you may 

 save yourself the trouble, unless you prevent it from seeing 

 the flash of the pan. If you wound one, never follow it ; 

 the bird, when its strength is almost exhausted, immerses 

 its body, raises the point of its bill above the surface, and 

 in this manner makes its way among the plants, until find- 

 ing some safe retreat along the shore, it betakes itself to it, 

 and there remains, so that you may search for it in vain, 

 unless you have a good dog. Even on wing it is not 

 easily shot. If on a creek ever so narrow, it will fly 

 directly towards its mouth, although you may be standing 

 knee-deep in the midde. It comes up like a ball, rises 

 and passes over head with astonishing speed, and if you 

 shoot at it, do not calculate upon a hit. You may guess 

 how many one may shoot in a day." 



" Like all the rest of the tribe, which, when far north, 

 for the want of hollow trees, breed on the moss or ground, 

 the Hooded Mergansers that remain with us nestle in the 

 same kind of holes or hollows as the Wood Ducks; at 

 least I have found their nests in such situations seven 

 or eight times, although I never saw one of them alight on 

 the branch of a tree, as the birds just mentioned are wont 

 to do. They dive as it were directly into their wooden 

 burrows, where, on a few dried weeds and feathers of 

 different kinds, with a small quantity of down from the 

 breast of the female, the eggs are deposited. They are 

 from five to eight, measure one inch and three-fourths, by 

 one and three-eighths, and in other respects perfectly 

 resemble those of the Red-breasted Merganser. The eggs 

 are laid in May, and are hatched some time in June. 

 The young, like those of the Wood Duck, are conveyed 

 to the water by their mother, who carries them gently in 

 her bill ; for the male takes no part in providing for his 



