THE WINTER DUCK. 3837 
“intended excursion, we put our heads to the north-west- 
ward, and bent our way homeward, the cold weather 
suddenly giving way on the noon of the second day ; 
after which we enjoyed the most delicious Indian-sum- 
mer weather I have ever witnessed. 
During the whole of our run down the Matchedash, 
and through the innumerable rice-lakes into which it 
expands, we had great sport with these same birds, 
which we killed in very considerable numbers, while 
daily we could observe them coming in by great flights 
from the north; though, on our way up, only three or 
four days previously, we had not seen a single bird of 
the kind, though we had shot many scaups, mallard, and 
dusky-duck ; and not a few buffel-heads, called by the 
Indians spirit-ducks, from the rapidity with which they 
vanish from the eye when diving at the flash. 
"The first thing which struck me on examining the 
specimen shown to me on board the “ Mohawk,” was 
the peculiar formation of the head and Dill, and the 
position of the wings and legs; all indicating it to be of 
the class fuligule, or sea-ducks, and of that coarse, and 
for the most part uneatable, species, generally known 
along our sea-board as ‘“ Coots”—although ‘the true coot 
is an entirely different species, haunting fresh-water 
pools, and belonging to the order of grailatores, distin- 
guished from the ducks by having only semipalmated in 
lieu of webbed feet. 
The known birds of this genus of fuligule, or sea- 
