106 LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
fers swimming against both wind and tide, as then it can sooner take 
wing if necessary. In calm and pleasant weather, like its congeners, 
it is fond of throwing its body almost over, and of pluming itself in 
that position. When on wing, the long feathers of its tail do not 
seem to aid its progress, any more than in other species. 
It seldom removes from the north on its way to our Middle Dis- 
tricts in large flocks ; but at the approach of the breeding season, and 
after the birds appear to be all paired, they fly northward in long lines, 
or broad fronts, moving high or low according to the state of the 
weather, passing at times at a considerable distance from the shores, 
but flying close to the points of every cape, although they never pass 
over an isthmus however narrow. Their flight is swift, well sustained, 
and accompanied with a well-marked whistling of their wings. Being 
expert divers, it is difficult to kill them on the water; and if you hap- 
pen to wound one but slightly, I would advise you, Reader, to give 
up the chase, unless you have hit it while on the ice, in which case you 
will find that it runs rather awkwardly. Their flesh is none of the 
best, being dark, generally tough, and to the taste fishy; for which 
reason they are now-a-days frequently brought to our markets plucked, 
with the head and feet cut off, and called by the venders by all names 
excepting old wives, squaws, noisy ducks, or south-southerlies. The 
food of this species consists chiefly of shell-fish ; but in the stomachs 
of those killed on fresh water in Labrador, I found small fishes, and a 
quantity of grass and its roots. 
From the great number of specimens which I have procured in our 
Middle Districts in winter, and those which I have seen killed during 
the love season in the north, I am induced to think that the elongated 
feathers of the tail of this species scarcely if at all, differ in length at 
these different periods, although some writers have said that in spring 
they are much longer than in winter, in which latter season, however, 
I think the old males differ only in the colour of their plumage from 
their state in spring. I have obtained male specimens at New York 
and at Baltimore early in March, when they were already much changed 
from their appearance in winter; but my friend Bacuman informs me 
that he has never seen one with any appearance of the summer plu- 
mage at Charleston in South Carolina, where however, he adds, this 
species is not common. 
I have represented two male birds, one in its full spring dress, the 
