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DUSKY DUCK. 
lance, and their peculiar habits. During the day they chiefly 
abandon the marshes; and float in considerable bodies on the 
Delaware, taking their repose, with the usual precaution of em- 
ploying wakeful sentinels, to give notice of danger. In the 
evening they resort to the muddy flats and shores, and occupy 
themselves throughout the greater part of the night in seeking 
for food. When searching out their feeding grounds, every in- 
dividual is on the alert; and on the slightest appearance of an 
enemy the whole mount and scatter, in such a manner, that, 
in a flock of a hundred, it would be difficult to knock down 
more than two or three at one shot. Their sense of smelling is 
uncommonly acute, and their eyesight, if we may judge from 
their activity at night, must be better than that of most species. 
When wounded on the water, they will immediately take to the 
shore, if in the vicinity, and conceal themselves under the first 
covert, so that one accustomed to this habit can have no diffi- 
culty in finding them. G. Ord. 
