64 



LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS — ANSERES. 





Audubon's account of it is apparently in part cofijectural, and in part from hearsay 

 testimony, and must be received with caution. He did not nicot with any when in 



Labrador ; but his son, John W. Audu- 

 bon, on a visit to Bhvnc Sablon, July 2S, 

 1833, found several deserted nests on the 

 top of low tangled fir-bushos, and was 

 told by the English clerk of the fishing 

 establishment there that these belonged 

 to the Pied Duck — the i)resent species. 

 The nests had much the apjiearance of 

 those of the Eider, were very large, 

 formed externally of fir-twigs, inter- 

 nally of dried grasses, and lined with 

 down. From this Audubon inferred that 

 the Pied Duck breeds earlier than most 

 of its tribe. It is a hardy bird, and at 

 the tinu^ Audubon wrote was seen during 

 the most severe cold of winter along the 

 coasts of Nova Scotia, Elaine, and ]\Ias- 

 sachusetts. Professor ]\Iaccullock, of 

 Pictou. procured several of this s})ecies 

 in that neighlxirhood ; and the pair fig- 

 ured by Audid)on, and now in the col- 

 lection of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 were killed by Daniel Wi'bster on Vine- 

 yard Island, on the coast of Alassachu- 

 setts, aiul by him given to Audubon. 

 The bird which the latter figured as a 

 female is now believed to have been a 



Male. 



young male. 



Audubon states that this Duck ranged as far south as the? Chesapeake, near the 

 influx of the James River ; that he found them in the Baltimore nuirket, and that it 

 was met with every winter along the coasts 

 of Long Island and New Jersey ; that it en- 

 tered the Delaware Kiver, and ascended as 

 far as I'hihulelphia; and that a bird-stuffer 

 of Camden caught many fine spi'cimens 

 of this species with fish-hooks baited with 

 mussels. 



]\tr. P. Turnbull, in his List of the Birds 

 of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 published in 18G9, gives this Duck as being 

 rare, but states that it is seen in small 

 nundjcrs every season. 



A writer in the " Naturalist," for Au- 

 gust, 1868, states that a single iiulividual of 

 this species had been shot the winter before 

 on Long Island. 



Mr. Gira'id, in 1843, speaks of this Duck 

 as Ijeing then very r.are on Long Island, where it was known to hunters as the " Skunk 



Female. 



