210 AMERICAN GAME. 
hood of which latter place I have myself met with it in 
October. It rarely visits the sea-shore, or salt marshes, 
its favorite haunts being the solitary, deep, and muddy 
creeks, ponds and mill-dams of the interior, making its 
nest frequently in old hollow trees that overhang the 
water. 
“The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico 
and many of the West India Islands. During the whole 
of our winters they are occasionally seen in the states 
south of the Potomac. On the 10th of January I met 
with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. In 
the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. 
In Pennsylvania the female usually begins to lay late in 
April, or early in May, Instances have been known 
where the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a 
fork of the branches; usually, however, the inside of a 
hollow tree is selected for this purpose. On the 18th of 
May I visited a tree containing the nest of a Summer 
Duck, on the banks of the Tuckahoe River, New Jersey, 
It was an old, grotesque white-oak, whose top had been 
torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the 
bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hol- ° 
low and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, 
decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with 
down, doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. 
These eggs were of an exact oval shape, less than those 
of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, and of 
the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resem- 
