THE SUMMER DUCK. 501 



Description. 



Head and crest metallic-green to below the eyes ; the cheeks, and a stripe from 

 behind the eye, purplish ; a narrow short line from the upper angle of the bill along 

 the side of the crown and through the crest, another on the upper eyelid, a stripe 

 starting below and behind the eye, and running into the crest paralle. with the one 

 first mentioned, the chin and upper part of the throat sending a well-defined branch 

 up towards the eye, and another towards the nape, snowy-white; lower neck and 

 jugulum, and sides of the base of tail, rich-purple; the jugulum with triangular 

 spots of white and a chestnut shade ; remaining under parts white, as is a crescent 

 in front of the wing bordered behind by black; sides yellowish-gray, finely lined 

 with black; the long feathers of the flanks broadly black at the end, with a sub- 

 terminal bar, and sometimes a tip of white ; back and neck above nearly uniform 

 bronzed-green and purple ; scapulars and innermost tertials velvet-black, glossed on 

 the inner webs with violet; the latter with a white bar at the end; greater coverts 

 violet, succeeded by a greenish speculum, tipped with white; primaries silvery-white 

 externally towards the end; the tips internally violet and purple; iris bright-red. 



Female with the wings quite similar; the back more .purplish; the sides of the 

 head and neck ashy ; the region round the base of the bill, a patch through the eyes, 

 and the chin, white; the purple of the jugulum replaced by brownish; the waved 

 feathers on the sides wanting. 



Length, nineteen inches ; wing, nine and fifty one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and 

 forty one-hundredths ; commissure, one and fifty-four one-hundredths inches. 



Sab. — Continent of North America. 



The Wood Duck is a summer resident in all the North- 

 ern States, and there are few country people who are not 

 acquainted with it either by the name of Wood Duck or 

 Summer Duck. It breeds in hollow stubs of trees in the 

 vicinity of streams, ponds, or lakes, and the J'oung birds are 

 carried to the water in the bill of the parent bird. I have 

 seen this done on several occasions, and guides and hunters 

 assure me it is a common habit. 



As the Duck flew over my head the young bird seemed to 

 be hanging by the neck from the parent's beak. 



I have visited several nests, and they were all composed 

 of down and feathers evidently pulled from the breasts of 

 the birds. One nest was in the top of a stub over sixty 

 feet high. 



The family, old and young, when swimming among the 

 green aquatic plants in the water make a charming pic- 

 ture. The little downy things dart about in pursuit of 

 water insects and flies with astonishing quickness, and their 



