DUSKY DUCK. 
245 
successive days, we saw many of these Ducks, which, by their actions, 
shewed that they also had nests. I may here state my belief, that the Gad- 
wall, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Mallard, American Widgeon, 
and Spoon-billed Duck, all breed in that country, as I observed them there 
late in May, when they were evidently paired. How far this fact may 
harmonize with the theories of writers respecting the migration of birds in 
general, is more than I can at present stop to consider. I have found the 
Black Duck breeding on lakes near the Mississippi, as far up as its conflu- 
ence with the Ohio, as well as in Pennsylvania and New Jersey ; and every 
one acquainted with its habits will tell you, that it rears its young in all the 
Eastern States intervening between that last mentioned and the St. Law- 
rence, and is of not less frequent occurrence along the margins of all our 
great lakes. It is even found on the Columbia river, and on the streams of 
the Rocky Mountains ; but as Dr. Richardson has not mentioned his having 
observed it in Hudson’s Bay or farther north, we may suppose that it does 
not visit those countries. 
On arriving in Labrador, on the 17th June, 1833, we found the Dusky 
Ducks in the act of incubation, but for nearly a month after, met with no 
young birds, which induced me to suppose that this species does not reach 
that country at so early a period as many others, but lingers behind so as 
to be nearly four weeks later than some of them. At the end of four weeks 
after our arrival, all the females we met with had young broods, which they 
led about the fresh-water ponds, and along their margins, either in search of 
food, or to secure them from danger. None of these broods exceeded seven 
or eight in number, and, at this early period of their life, we found them 
covered with long soft down of a deep brown colour. When alarmed they 
would dive with great celerity several times in succession, but soon became 
fatigued, made for the shore, ran a few feet from the water, and squatted 
among the grass, where they were easily caught either by some of our party, 
or by the Gulls, which are constantly on the look-out for such dainty food. 
At other times, as soon as the mother apprehends danger, she calls her young 
around her, when the little things form themselves into a line in her wake, 
and carefully follow her in all her movements. If a Hawk or a Gull make 
a plunge towards them, she utters a loud cry of alarm, and then runs as it 
were along the surface of the water, when the young dive as quick as 
lightning, and do not rise again until they find themselves among the weeds 
or the rocks along the shores. When they thus dive, they separate and 
pursue different directions, and on reaching the land lie close among the 
herbage until assured, by the well-known voice of their parent, that the 
danger is over. If they have often been disturbed in one pond, their anxious 
mother leads them overland to another ; but she never, I believe, conducts 
