314 
SUMMER DUCK. 
a tree containing the nest of a Summer Duck, on the banks of 
Tuckahoe river, New Jersey. It was an old grotesque white 
oak, whose top had been torn off by a storm. It stood on the 
declivity of the bank, about twenty yards from the water. In 
this hollow and broken top, and about six feet down, on the 
soft decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down, 
doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. These eggs were of 
an exact oval shape, less than those of a hen, the surface exceed- 
ingly fine grained, and of the highest polish and slightly yel- 
lowish, greatly resembling old polished ivory. The egg mea- 
sured two inches and an eighth by one inch and a half. On 
breaking one of them, the young bird was found to be nearly 
hatched, but dead, as neither of the parents had been observed 
about the tree during the three or four days preceding; and were 
conjectured to have been shot. 
This tree had been occupied, probably by the same pair, for 
four successive years, in breeding time; the person who gave 
me the information, and whose house was within twenty or 
thirty yards of the tree, said that he had seen the female, the 
spring preceding, carry down thirteen young, one by one, in 
less than ten minutes. She caught them in her bill by the wing 
or back of the neck, and landed them safely at the foot of the 
tree, whence she afterwards led them to the water. Under this 
same tree, at the time I visited it, a large sloop lay on the stocks, 
nearly finished, the deck was not more than twelve feet distant 
from the nest, yet notwithstanding the presence and noise of 
the workmen, the ducks would not abandon their old breeding 
place, but continued to pass out and in as if no person had been 
near. The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and kept 
watch while the female was laying; and also often while she 
was sitting. A tame Goose had chosen a hollow space at the 
root of the same tree, to lay and hatch her young in. 
The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more than three 
or four individuals together, and most commonly in pairs, or 
singly. The common note of the drake ispeet, peet; but, when 
standing centinel, he sees danger, he makes a noise not unlike 
