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woods, and no doubt conducting them towards the Ohio When I first saw 
her, she had already observed me, and had squatted flat among the grass, 
with her brood around her. As I moved onwards, she ruffled her feathers, 
and hissed at me in the manner of a Goose, while the little ones scampered 
off in all directions. I had an excellent dog, well instructed to catch young 
birds without injuring them, and I ordered him to seek for them. On this 
the mother took to wing, and flew through the woods as if about to fall down 
at every yard or so. She passed and repassed over the dog, as if watching 
the success of his search; and as one after another the ducklings were brought 
to me, and struggled in my bird-bag, the distressed parent came to the ground 
near me, rolled and tumbled about, and so affected me by her despair, that I 
ordered my dog to lie down, while, with a pleasure that can be felt only by 
those who are parents themselves, I restored to her the innocent brood, and 
walked off. As I turned round to observe her, I really thought I could 
perceive gratitude expressed in her eye ; and a happier moment I never felt 
while rambling in search of knowledge through the woods. 
In unfrequented parts, the Mallards feed both by day and by night ; but 
in places where they are much disturbed by gunners, they feed mostly by 
night, or towards evening and about sunrise. In extremely cold weather, 
they betake themselves to the sources of streams, and even to small springs, 
where they may be found along with the American Snipe. At times, after 
heavy falls of rain, they are seen searching for ground-worms over the corn- 
fields, and during the latter part of autumn, the rice plantations of Georgia 
and the Carolinas afford them excellent pasture grounds. I have thought 
indeed that at this season these birds perform a second migration as it were, 
for they then pour into the rice-fields by thousands from the interior. In 
the Floridas, they are at times seen in such multitudes as to darken the air, 
and the noise they make in rising from off a large submersed savannah, is 
like the rumbling of thunder. So numerous were the Mallards while I was 
at General Hernandez’s in East Florida, that a single Negro whom that 
gentleman kept as a hunter, would shoot from fifty to a hundred and twenty 
in a day, thus supplying the plantation with excellent food. 
The flight of the Mallard is swift, strong, and well sustained. It rises 
either from the ground or from the water at a single spring, and flies almost 
perpendicularly for ten or fifteen yards, or, if in a thick wood, until quite 
above the tops of the tallest trees, after which it moves horizontally. If 
alarmed, it never rises without uttering several quacks j but on other occa- 
sions it usually leaves its place in silence. While travelling to any distance, 
the whistling sound of their wings may be heard a great way off, more 
especially in the quiet of night. Their progress through the air I have 
thought might be estimated at a mile and a half in the minute ; and I feel 
Yol. YI. 33 
