THE SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. 
Anas Sponsa. 
Tuts lovely species of the most beautiful of the whole 
Duck tribe, is peculiar to the continent and isles of 
America, being familiarly known through almost every 
portion of the United States, and according to Wilson, 
common in Mexico and the West India Islands. In 
Florida it is very abundant, as it is, more or less, on all 
the fresh waters so far north as the interior of the State 
of New York; in the colder regions, to the north-east- 
ward, though not unknown, it is of less frequent occur- 
rence than in more genial climates. 
Its more correct title, “Summer Duck,” is referable 
to the fact, that it is not, like most of the Anatides and 
Fuligule, fresh water and sea ducks, more or less a bird 
of passage, retiring to the fastnesses of the extreme north, 
for the purposes of nidification, and rearing its young ; 
but, wherever it abounds, is a permanent citizen of the 
land, raising its family in the very place where itself was 
born, and not generally, if undisturbed, moving very far 
