208 AMERICAN GAME. 
that season, but in size the latter were quite equal to the 
mother bird. 
I consider the Summer Duck, at all times rather a less 
shy bird than its congeners, though it may that it is ow- 
ing to the woody covert which, unlike others of its tribe, 
it delights to frequent; and which perhaps acts in some 
degree as a screen to its pursuer; but except on one 
other occasion I never saw any thing like the tameness 
of that brood. 
The other instance occurred nearly in the same place, 
and in the same month, I think, of the ensuing year. I 
was again out summer cock shooting, and was crossing a 
small, sluggish brook, of some twelve or fourteen feet 
over, with my gun under my arm, on a pile of old rails, 
which had been thrown into the channel by the hay- 
makers, to make an extemporaneous bridge for the hay 
teams; when on a sudden, to my very great wonder- 
ment, and I must admit to my very considerable fluster- 
ation likewise, almost to the point of tumbling me into 
the mud, out got a couple of Wood Ducks from the rails, 
literally under my feet, with a prodigious bustle of wings 
and quacking. If I had not so nearly tumbled into the 
stream, ten to one I should have shot too quickly and 
missed them both; but the little effort to recover my 
footing gave me time to get cool again, and I bagged 
them both. One was again the old duck, the other a 
young drake of that season. 
In the spring, the old duck selects her place in some 
