SPECIES 9. JiNJiS OB SC UR Jl. 
DUSKY DUCK. 
[Plate LXXIL— Fig. 5.] 
Arct. Zool. JV’o. 4<)9.~LArH. Sijn. in, p.545 . — Peale’s Museum, 
JVo, 2880. 
This species is generally known along the seacoast of New 
.Jersey and the neighbouring country by the name of the Black 
Duck, being the most common and most numerous of all those 
of its tribe that frequent the salt marshes. It is only partially 
migratory. 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 near- 
ly resembling those of the domestic duck. Vast numbers, how- 
ever, regularly migrate farther north on the approach of spring. 
During their residence here in winter they frequent the marsh- 
es, and the various creeks and inlets with which those exten- 
sive flats are intersected. Their principal food consists of those 
minute snail shells so abundant in the marshes. They occasion- 
ally visit the sandy beach in search of small bivalves, and on 
these occasions sometimes cover whole acres with their num- 
bers. 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 extremely shy during the day; and 
on the most distant report of a musquet, rise from every quar- 
ter of the marsh in prodigious numbers, dispersing in every di- 
rection. 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 usual- 
ly fly, they are shot down in great numbers, their flight being 
then low. Geese, Brant, and Black Duck are the common game 
