76 BIRDS OF P. E. ISLAND. 



The Black Duck (A^ias ohsciira) is sometimes 

 with us all winter too, but it is a bird of the 

 sheltered river, not of the foaming Gulf. In 

 summer, it disports on the broad estuary, chas- 

 ing its fellows through the splashing water, and 

 shouting loud quacks in its glee. It wanders in 

 companies of a score or more when out on the 

 bay, but disperses in very small numbers when 

 it goes up to the marshes to feed. At dusk, I 

 have seen large numbers going out to lonely 

 places at sea, for security over night. The 

 female hides her nest in the brushwood, near 

 the shores, or in long grass on the sand hills, 

 and deposits her seven to thirteen greenish eggs 

 in a bulky, comfortable receptacle, built of dry 

 grass, with some down. She lays in June or 

 July, and in August, has her brood around her 

 out on the river. So close do the ducklings 

 keep to the mother, that, from a distance, 

 you would take the whole group for one 

 object. Most wary is the mother now as she 

 floats the broad, silvery tide, or steals furtively to 

 the covert on the bank. In winter a few of 

 these ducks stay about the head - waters of rivers 

 and large springs. They do not dive for food, 



