320 
and other plants, afford abundant subsis- 
tance to the Ducks. But when the larger 
pieces of standing water are frozen, they 
remove to running springs, and sometimes 
when the weather is very severe, resort to 
the edges of woods in search of acorns, and 
even alight upon fields sown with corn. 
In the spring the greater number of these 
birds leave this country preferring the more 
northern regions where they breed and 
rear their young, in that season says a cele- 
brated author, " they may be said to cover 
all the lakes and rivers of Siberia and 
Lapland, as far north even as Spitsbergen 
and Greenland." 
It not unfrequently happens that a large 
variety of this bird is caught in our decoys, 
or shot by the sportsman ; but these are 
only half domesticated ducks which are 
obliged to leave the canals or pieces of 
water belonging to private persons owing 
to the severity of the frost. These are 
called Rouen Ducks. 
The Hook billed is merely a variety of 
the common domesticated Duck. The 
only difference is in the form of the beak, 
2 R 
