278 THE WILD FOWL. 



who are in EDgland ' cabin'd, cribbed, confined/ by lack 

 of ground to shoot over, could there make a decent 

 living by supplying the markets^ whUst giving rein to 

 their sporting aspirations. 



When the 7}%ast is falling in the forests, these ducks 

 are to be found in all the woodland lakes and ponds, 

 where they wander ashore to collect the fallen acorns, 

 or dive for those which have fallen into the water from 

 overhanging tree^ When the nuts, acorns, &c., have 

 been pretty well exhausted, they resort to the prairie 

 ponds and sloughs, and in mid-winter scarcely a puddle 

 is to be found which does not hold ducks. I never 

 kept an account of the wild fowl I killed during my 

 residence in Texas. Had I done so, I should have been 

 afraid to mention the quantity which fell to my gun ; 

 but the number must have been enormous, as on almost 

 every day throughout the year I handled the rifle or 

 the shot-gun. 



The American Widgeon breeds only in the extreme 

 North, in the boundless mosses and morasses of Labrador 

 and Boothia Felix, and it is rather later in making its 

 appearance in the South than the other ducks. 



I have had capital sport with them on Old Caney 

 Creek, in Matagorda County, and on Oyster Creek, in 

 Brazoria County. They are to be found, like the rest of 

 the ducks, scattered generally over the whole of the 

 Southern States. 

 The Blue-Winged Teal, the first of our winter visitants. 



