162 SURF DUCK. 
numerous did they become; and of the many kinds that presented 
themselves to our anxious gaze, the Surf Duck was certainly not the 
least numerous. It is true that in the noble bays of our own coast, 
in the Sound, between New York and the Hook, on the broader waters 
of the Chesapeake, and beyond them to the mouths of the Mississippi, 
I had seen thousands of Surf Ducks ; but the numbers that passed the 
shores of Labrador, bound for the far north, exceeded all my previous 
conceptions. ‘ 
For more than a week after we had anchored in the lovely harbour 
of Little Macatina, I had been anxiously searching for the nest of this 
species, but in vain: the millions that sped along the shores had no 
regard to my wishes. At length I found that a few pairs had remained 
in the neighbourhood, and one morning, while in the company of Cap- 
tain Emery, searching for the nests of the Red-breasted Merganser, 
over a vast oozy and treacherous fresh-water marsh, I suddenly started 
a female Surf Duck from her treasure. We were then about five miles 
distant from our harbour, from which our party had come in two boats, 
and fully five and a half miles from the waters of the Gulf of St Law- 
rence. ‘The marsh was about three miles in length, and so unsafe that 
more than once we both feared, as we were crossing it, that we might 
never reach its margin. The nest was snugly placed amid the tall 
leaves of a bunch of grass, and raised fully four inches above its roots. 
It was entirely composed of withered and rotten weeds, the former 
being circularly arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded 
cavity, six inches in diameter, by two and a half in depth. The bor- 
ders of this inner cup were lined with the down of the bird, in the 
same manner as the Eider Duck’s nest, and in it lay five eggs, the 
smallest number I have ever found in any duck’s nest. They were 
two inches and two and a half eighths in length, by one inch and five- 
eighths in their greatest breadth ; more equally rounded at both ends 
than usual; the shell perfectly smooth, and of a uniform pale yellow- 
ish or cream colour. I took them on board, along with the female 
bird, which was shot as she rose from her nest. We saw no male bird 
near the spot; but in the course of the same day, met with several 
males by themselves, about four miles distant from the marsh, as we 
were returning to the harbour. This induced me to believe that, like 
the Eider and other ducks that breed in Labrador, the males aban- 
don the females as soon as incubation commences. I regret that, not- 
