310 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
C* — -A few days after^ I took another not quite so large^ 
from an elm : I perceive they eat the leaves of either plant 
indiscriminately. They are now spinning cocoons. I met 
with a large Dragonfly (^Mshnd), handsomely spotted and 
banded with bright grass-green, on a brown ground : I caught 
it in my hand. 
jP. — Here we open on the smooth river. Do you see 
those two birds flying along under the bank^ close to the 
water's edge ? 
C. — They are ducks, by their straight, swift, but very 
peculiar flight, and by the whirring of their wings. Do you 
know of what particular species they are ? 
F, — I suspect them to be the lovely little Summer Duck, 
or Wood Duck (Anas Sponsa), which haunts the borders of 
our wooded streams. This is the most beautifully orna- 
mented of any species of duck that I am acquainted with. 
Its hanging crest, and its beautiful colours, have made it a 
favourite in Europe, where it appears to be half naturalised. 
I am little acquainted with our water birds, but I think it 
probable that in our lakes and rivers most of the fresh- water 
ducks that inhabit the United States may be found. One 
of our neighbours shot on the Coatacook^ where it runs 
through the meadows, a few days ago, a summer duck, and 
some Pied ducks, as he calls them, with sharp pointed bills, 
but which, from his description, I take to have been no other 
than the Hooded Merganser {Mergus Cumllatus), The same 
person has told me of an attempt he once made to rear a 
brood of wild ducks of some sort, which he calls the Black 
Duck (possibly Anas Obscura), About the end of May 
he found a black duck sitting on a nest, containing ten eggs ; 
happening, at the same time, to have two hens in his yard 
contending for the possession of one nest, he placed the duck's 
eggs by the side of the hen's nest, and was gratified to ob- 
serve that one of the hens took to them. In due time the 
