600 SUMMER DUCK. 
of the wild oats, and insects. Their flesh is inferior to that of the 
Blue-winged Teal. They are-frequent in the markets of Philadelphia. 
Among other gaudy feathers with which the- Indians ornament the 
calumet or pipe of peace, the skin of the head and :seck of the Sum- 
mer Duck is frequently seen covering the stem. 
This beautiful bird has often been tamed, and scon becomes so fa- 
miliar as ‘to permit one to stroke its back with the hand. I have seen 
individuals so tamed, in various parts of the Union. Captain Boyer, 
collector of the port of Havre-de-Grace, informs me, that, about forty 
years ago, a Mr. Nathan Nicols, who lived on the west side of Gun- 
powder Creek, had a whole yard swarming with Summer Ducks, which 
he had tamed dand-completely domesticated, so that they bred and 
were as familiar as any other tame fowls; that he (Captain Bere) 
‘himself saw them in that state, but does not know what became o 
them. . Latham says, that they are often kept in European menageries, 
and will breed there.* : 
The Wood Duck is nineteen inches in length, and two feet four 
inches in extent; bill, red, margined with black; a spot of black 
lies between the nostrils, reaching nearly to the tip, which is also of 
the same color, and furnished with a large, hooked nail; irides, orange 
red; front, crown, and pendent crest, rich glossy bronze green, ending 
in violet, elegantly marked with a line of pure white running from the 
upper mandible over the eye, and with another band of white pro- 
ceeding from behind.the eye, both mingling their long, pendent 
plumes with the green and violet ones, producing a rich effect ; cheeks 
and sides of the upper neck, violet ; chin, throat, and collar round the 
neck, pure white, curving up in the form of a-crescent, nearly to the 
posterior part of the eye; the, white collar is bounded below with 
black; breast, dark violet brown, marked on the fore part with minute 
triangular spots of white, increasing in size until they spread into the 
white of the belly ; each side of the breast is bounded by a large 
crescent of white, and that again by a broader one of deep black; 
sides, under the wings, thickly and beautifully marked with fine, undu- 
lating, parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish drab; the 
flanks are ornamented with broad, alternate, semicircular bands ‘of 
' black and white; sides of the vent, rich light violet; tail-coverts, 
long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which they descend, and 
of a deep black, glossed with green; back, dusky bronze, reflecting 
‘green; scapulars, black; tail, tapering, dark glossy green above; be- 
low, dusky; primaries, dusky, silvery hoary without, tipped with violet 
blue; secondaries, greenish blue, tipped with white; wing-coyerts, 
violet blue, tipped with black; vent, dusky; legs and feet, yellowish 
red; claws, strong and hooked. : 
The above is as accurate a description as I can give of a very per- 
fect specimen now. before me, from which Fig. 288 was faithfully 
copied. 
The female has the head slightly crested; crown, dark purple ; be- 
hind the eye, a bar of white; chin and throat, for two inches, also 
white; head and neck, dark drab; breast, dusky brown, marked with 
‘large, triangular spots of white; back, dark glossy | ronze brown, with 
* General Syropsis, iii. 547. 
