SUMMER DUCK. 599 
the Wood Duck, from the circumstance of its breedinz :a hollow trees ; 
and the Summer Duck, from remaining with us ey .efly during the 
summer. It is familiarly known in every quarter of tue United States, 
from Florida to Lake Ontario, in the neighborhood 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, 1 met with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. 
In the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. In Penn- 
sylvania, the female usually begins to lay late in April or early in 
May. Instarices have been known where the nest was constructed of 
afew sticks laid in a fork of the branches; usually, however, the in- 
side 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 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 
hollow 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 resembling 
old, polished ivory. The egg measured two inches and an eighth by 
one inch and a half. On breaking one of them, the young bird was 
found to be nearly hatched, but dead, as neither of the parents had 
been observed about the tree during the three or four days preceding, 
and were conjectured to haye been shot. 
This tree had been occupied, probably by the same pair, for four 
successive years, in breeding time; the person who gave me the in- 
formation, and whose house was within twenty or thirty yards of the 
tree, said that he had seen the female, the spring preceding, carry 
down thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes. She 
caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the neck, and landed 
them safely at the foot of the tree, whence she afterwards led them to 
the water. Under this same tree, at the time I visited it, a large sloop 
lay on. the stocks, nearly finished; the deck was not more than twelve 
feet distant from the nest, yet notwithstanding the presence and noise 
of the workmen, the Ducks would xot abandon their old breeding 
place, but continued to pass out and 1, as if no person had been near. 
The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and kept watch while 
the female was laying, and also often while she was sitting. A tame 
Goose had chosen a hollow space at the root of the same tree, to lay 
and hatch her young in. r 
The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more than three or four 
‘individuals together, and most commonly in pairs, or singly. The 
common note of the drake is peet, peet ; but waen, standing sentinel, 
he sees danger, he makes a noise not unlike the crowing of a young 
cock, oe eek! oe eek! Their food consists principally of acorns, seeds 
