THE WOOD DUCK. 277 



his horse's saddle, and afterwards feeding them in coops on Indian corn. In 

 that State, they are bought in the markets for thirty or forty cents the pair. 

 At Boston, where I found them rather abundant during winter, they bring 

 nearly double that price; but in Ohio or Kentucky twenty-five cents are 

 considered an equivalent. Their feathers are as good as those of any other 

 species; and I feel well assured that, with a few years of care, the Wood 

 Duck might be perfectly domesticated, when it could not fail to be as valu- 

 able as it is beautiful. 



Their sense of hearing is exceedingly acute, and by means of it they often 

 save themselves from their wily enemies the mink, the polecat, and the 

 racoon. The vile snake that creeps into their nest and destroys their eggs, 

 is their most pernicious enemy on land. The young, when on the water, 

 have to guard against the snapping-turtle, the gar-fish, and the eel, and in 

 the Southern Districts, against the lashing tail and the tremendous jaws of 

 the alligator. 



Those which breed in Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, move 

 southward as soon as the frosts commence, and none are known to spend the 

 winter so far north. I have been much surprised to find Wilson speaking 

 of the Wood Ducks as a species of which more than five or six individuals 

 are seldom seen together. A would-be naturalist in America, who has had 

 better opportunities of knowing its habits than the admired author of the 

 'American Ornithology," repeats the same error, and, I am told, believes 

 that all his statements are considered true. For my own part, I assure you, 

 I have seen hundreds in a single flock, and have known fifteen to be killed 

 by a single shot. They, however, raise only one brood in the season, unless 

 their eggs or young have been destroyed. Should this happen, the female 

 soon finds means of recalling her mate from the flock which he has joined. 



On having recourse to a journal written by me at Henderson nearly 

 twenty years ago, I find it stated that the attachment of a male to a female 

 lasts only during one breeding season; and that the males provide themselves 

 with mates in succession, the strongest taking the first choice, and the 

 weakest being content with what remains. The young birds which I raised, 

 never failed to make directly for the Ohio, whenever they escaped from the 

 grounds, although they never had been there before. The only other cir- 

 cumstances which I have to mention are, that when entering the hole in 

 which its nest is, the bird dives as it were into it at once, and does not alight 

 first against the tree; that I have never witnessed an instance of its taking- 

 possession, by force, of a Woodpecker's hole; and lastly, that during winter 

 they allow Ducks of different species to associate with them. 



Dr. Bachman, who has kept a male of this species several years, states 



