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ANAS OBSCURA. DUSKY DUCK, OR BLACK DUCK. 



This Duck is well known to all our sea-shore Shooters, and 

 innumerable quantities are brought to the Philadelphia markets. 

 They meet with ready sale, although their flesh is far inferior 

 to many other varieties of Wild Fowl. They are better known 

 as the Black Duck, and are shot on the salt marshes of the 

 Delaware. They are very wary, and will not stool. They feed 

 on the small bivalves that are so abundant in these waters, as 

 also along the shores of the creeks and inlets of the Middle 

 States. Black Ducks swim and fly with great velocity ; their 

 notes resemble those of the Mallard, but their flesh is much in- 

 ferior. 



As before stated, Wild Fowl rise almost universally against 

 the wind ; Black Ducks, however, are an exception to this 

 general rule, as they spring indifferently either with or against 

 the wind. 



Numbers of Black Ducks are killed by the Gunners lying in 

 wait for them in the route of their return from the sea to the 

 marshes to feed after night. This kind of shooting is termed 

 " dusking,''^ and of course can only be practised with much suc- 

 cess on a moonlight night. 

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