18 DUSKY DUCK. 
commences, but exhibit none of the curious changes which that species 
undergoes. | 
Although the Dusky Duck is often seen on salt-water bays or 
inlets, it resembles the Mallard in its habits, being fond of swampy 
marshes, rice-fields, and the shady margins of our rivers, during the 
whole of its stay in such portions of the Southern States as it is 
known to breed in. ‘They are equally voracious, and may sometimes 
be seen with their crops so protruded as to destroy the natural elegance 
of their form. They devour, with the greatest eagerness, water-lizards, 
young frogs and toads, tadpoles, all sorts of insects, acorns, beech-nuts, 
and every kind of grain that they can obtain. They also, at times, 
seize on small quadrupeds, gobble up earth-worms and leeches, and when 
in salt water, feed on shell-fish. When on the water, they often pro- 
cure their food by immersing their head and neck, and, like the Mal- 
lard, sift the produce of muddy pools. Like that species also, they 
will descend in a spiral manner from on high, to alight under an oak 
or a beech, when they have discovered the mast to be abundant. 
Shy and vigilant, they are with difficulty approached by the gunner, 
unless under cover or on horseback, or in what sportsmen call floats, or 
shallow boats made for the purpose of procuring water-fowl. They 
are, however, easily caught in traps set on the margins of the waters 
to which they resort, and baited with Indian corn, rice, or other grain. 
They may also be enticed to wheel round, and even alight, by imitating 
their notes, which, in both sexes, seem to me almost precisely to re- 
semble those of the Mallard. From that species, indeed, they scarcely 
differ in external form, excepting in wanting the curiously recurved 
feathers of the tail, which Nature, as if clearly to distinguish the two 
species, had purposely omitted in them. 
The flight of this Duck, which, in as far as I know,‘is peculiar to 
America, is powerful, rapid, and as sustained as that of the Mallard. 
While travelling by day they may be distinguished from that species by 
the whiteness of their lower wing-coverts, which form a strong contrast 
to the deep tints of the rest of their plumage, and which I have attempt- 
ed to represent in the figure of the female birdin my plate. Their pro- 
gress through the air, when at full speed, must, I think, be at the rate 
of more than a mile in a minute, or about seventy miles in an hour. 
When about to alight, they descend with double rapidity, causing a 
strong rustling sound by the weight of their compact body and the 
