OLD SQUAW. 35jr 



than disgust those happy few who may be willing "to find 

 good in everything." His peculiar cry is well known to the 

 aboriginal sons of the forest, and among the Crees the species 

 is called ^Hah-ha-way, — so much like the syllables I have 

 given above that many might imagine my additions no more 

 than a version of the same. But I may perhaps be allowed to 

 say that the notes I had taken on the subject were made two 

 years previous to the publication of Dr. Richardson's "Zool- 

 ogy," whence I learn this coincidence of the name and sound 

 as given by the aborigines of the North. This Duck is no less 

 known to the Canadian voyagers, who have celebrated it in 

 their simple effusions by the name of the " Cackiwee." 



In the course of the winter the Long-tailed Ducks wander 

 out into the bays and inlets nearly if not quite to the extremity 

 of the United States coasts ; and in the spring, voyaging along 

 the unruffled bosom of the great Mississippi with the many 

 thousands of other water-fowl which penetrate by this route 

 into the interior, we find among the crowding throng some 

 small flocks of the present species, who proceed as far as the 

 banks of the Missouri. In Spitzbergen, Iceland, and along 

 the grassy shores of Hudson Bay, they make their nests about 

 the middle of June, lining the interior with the down from 

 their breasts, which is equally soft and elastic with that pro- 

 duced by the Eider. 



These birds abound in Greenland, Lapland, Russia, and 

 Kamtschatka, are seen about St. Petersburg, and from Octo- 

 ber to April many flocks pass the winter in the Orkneys. 

 They are only accidental visitors on the Great Lakes in Ger- 

 many and along the borders of the Baltic, and are often seen, 

 but never in flocks, upon the maritime coasts of Holland. 

 The flesh of the old birds is but little esteemed, yet that of the 

 young is pret.ty good food. 



The Old Squaw breeds at extremely high latitudes, being more 

 Arctic in its distribution than any other species of Duck. It win- 

 ters in numbers along the coast of south Greenland, and is common 

 all along the Atlantic to the Southern States. 



