DUSKY DUCK. 247 



spring plumage before the season of reproduction commences, but exhibit 

 none of the curious changes which that species undergoes. 



Although the Dusky Duck is often seen on salt-water bays or inlets, it 

 resembles the Mallard in its habits, being fond of swampy marshes, rice- 

 fields, and the shady margins of our rivers, during the whole of its stay in 

 such portions of the Southern States as it is known to breed in. They are 

 equally voracious, and may sometimes be seen with their crops so protruded 

 as to destroy the natural elegance of their form. They devour, with the 

 greatest eagerness, water-lizards, young frogs and toads, tadpoles, all sorts of 

 insects, acorns, beech-nuts, and every kind of grain that they can obtain. 

 They also, at times, seize on small quadrupeds, gobble up earth-worms and 

 leeches, and when in salt-water, feed on shell-fish. When on the water, they 

 often procure their food by immersing their head and neck, and, like the 

 Mallard, sift the produce of muddy pools. Like that species also, they will 

 descend in a spiral manner from on high, to alight under an oak or a beech, 

 when they have discovered the mast to be abundant. 



Shy and vigilant, they are with difficulty approached by the gunner, 

 unless under cover or on horseback, or in what sportsmen call floats, or 

 shallow boats made for the purpose of procuring water-fowl. They are, 

 however, easily caught in traps set on the margins of the waters to which 

 they resort, and baited with Indian corn, rice, or other grain. They may 

 also be enticed to wheel round, and even alight, by imitating their notes, 

 which, in both sexes, seem to me almost precisely to resemble those of the 

 Mallard. From that species, indeed, they scarcely differ in external form, 

 excepting in wanting the curiously recurved feathers of the tail, which 

 Nature, as if clearly to distinguish the two species, had purposely omitted in 

 them. 



The flight of this Duck, which, in as far as I know, is peculiar to America, 

 is powerful, rapid, and as sustained as that of the Mallard. While travelling 

 by day they may be distinguished from that species by the whiteness of 

 their lower wing-coverts, which form a strong contrast to the deep tints of 

 the rest of their plumage, and which I have attempted to represent in the 

 figure of the female bird in my plate. Their progress through the air, when 

 at full speed, must, I think, be at the rate of more than a mile in a minute, 

 or about seventy miles in an hour. When about to alight, they descend 

 with double rapidity, causing a strong rustling sound by the weight of their 

 compact body and the rapid movements of their pointed wings. When 

 alarmed by a shot or otherwise, they rise off their feet by a single powerful 

 spring, fly directly upwards for eight or ten yards, and then proceed in a 

 straight line. Now, if you are an expert hand, is the moment to touch your 

 trigger, and if you delay, be sure your shot will fall short. 



