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 :teck 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 and completely domesticated, so that they bred and 
were as familiar as any other tame fowls; that he (Captain pe 
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 whité, 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-coverts, 
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. aaa 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 I ronze brown, with 
* General Synopsis, iii, 547. 
