354 GADWALL DUCK. 
winged Teal, the Widgeon, and the Shoveller, the young of all these 
species being plentiful in the end of June and beginning of July. I 
was satisfied as to the truth of the repeated assurances I had received 
on this subject, by observing the manners of individuals of all these 
species before my departure from that country. After a continuance 
of rainy weather, Gadwalls are found in great numbers on the vast 
prairies of Oppelousas and Attacapas, where I have been told they 
continue until very late in spring, and some remain to breed. 
This species dives well on occasion, especially on being wounded. 
At the appearance of danger, it rises on wing—whether from the ground 
or from the water—at a single spring, in the manner of the Mallard, 
and, like it also, ascends almost perpendicularly for several yards, after 
which it moves off in a direct course with great celerity. I have never 
seen it dive on seeing the flash of the gun ; but when approached it al- 
ways swims to the opposite part of the pond, and, when the danger in- 
creases, flies off. On being wounded, it sometimes by diving makes its 
escape among the grass, whereit squats and remains concealed. It walks 
with ease, and prettily, often making incursions upon the land, when 
the ponds are not surrounded by trees, for the purpose of searching for 
food. It nibbles the tender shoots and blades of grasses with apparent 
pleasure, and will feed on beech-nuts, acorns, and seeds of all kinds of 
graminez, as well as on tadpoles, small fishes, and leeches. After 
rain it alights in the corn-fields, like the Mallard, and picks up the 
scattered grains of maize. ‘The common notes or cry of the female 
have a considerable resemblance to those of the female Mallard; but 
the cry of the male is weaker as in that species. 
It is by no means shy in the Western Country, where I have often 
found it associating with other species, which would leave the pond 
before it. Near the sea, however, it is much more wary, and this no 
doubt on account of the greater number of persons who there follow 
‘shooting as a regular and profitable employment. From the following 
note of my friend Dr Bacuman, you may judge how easily this fine 
species might be domesticated. 
“In the year 1812 I saw in Dutchess County, in the State of New 
York, at the house of a miller, a fine flock of ducks, to the number of 
at least thirty, which, from their peculiar appearance, struck me as dif- 
fering from any I had before seen among the different varieties of the 
tame Duck. On inquiry, I was informed that three years before, a 
