141 



DUSKY DUCK. 

 AMAS OBSCURA. 

 [Plate LXXII.— Fig. 5.] 



Jlrct. Zool. JVo. 469. — ^Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 545. — Peale's Museum, Xo. 2880. 



THIS species is generally known along the sea coast of New 

 Jersey and the neighbouring country by the name of the Black 

 Duckj being the most common and most numerous of all those of 

 its tribe that frequent the salt marshes. It is only partially mi- 

 gratory. Numbers of them remain during the summer, and breed 

 in sequestered places in the marsh, or on the sea islands of the 

 beach. The eggs are eight or ten in number, very nearly resem- 

 bling those of the domestic duck. Vast numbers, however, regu- 

 larly migrate farther north on the approach of spring. During 

 their residence here in winter they frequent the marshes, and the 

 various creeks and inlets with which those extensive flats are inter- 

 sected. Their principal food consists of those minute snail shells 

 so abundant in the marshes. They occasionally visit the sandy 

 beach in search of small bivalves, and on these occasions some- 

 times cover whole acres with their numbers. They roost at night 

 in the shallow ponds, in the middle of the salt marsh, particularly 

 on islands, where many are caught by the foxes. They are ex- 

 tremely shy during the day ; and on the most distant report of a 

 musquet, rise from every quarter of the marsh in prodigious num- 

 bers, dispersing in every direction. In calm weather they fly high, 

 beyond the reach of shot; but when the wind blows hard, and the 

 gunner conceals himself among the salt grass in a place over which 

 they usually fly, they are shot down in great numbers ; their flight 

 being then low. Geese, Brant, and Black Duck are the common 



VOL. VIII. N n 



