246 
DUSKY DUCK. 
them to the open sea until they are able to fly. The young grow with 
remarkable rapidity, for, by the middle of August, they almost equal their 
parents in size ; and their apprehension of danger keeps pace with their 
growth, for at the period of their southward migration, which takes place 
in the beginning of September, they are as wild and as cunning as the oldest 
and most experienced of their species. Each brood migrates separately ; and 
the old males, which abandoned the females when incubation commenced, 
set out in groups of eight or ten. Indeed, it is not common to see birds of 
this species assemble in such flocks as their relatives the Mallards, although 
they at times associate with almost all the fresh-water Ducks. 
The males, on leaving the females, join together in small bands, and retire 
into the interior of the marshes, where they remain until their moult is 
completed. My young friend Cooledge brought me a pair shot on the 4th 
of July, in Labrador, in so ragged a state that very few feathers remained 
even on the wings. On his approaching them, they skimmed over the 
surface of the water with such rapidity, that when shot at they seemed as if 
flying away. On examining these individuals I found them to be sterile, and 
I am of opinion that those which are prolific moult at a later period, nature 
thus giving moiie protracted vigour to those which have charge of a young 
brood. I think, reader, you will be of the same opinion, when I have told 
you, that on the 5th of July I found some which had young, and which were 
still in full plumage, and others, that were broodless, almost destitute of 
feathers. 
As many of the nests found in Labrador differed from the one mentioned 
above, I will give you an account of them. In several instances, we found 
them imbedded in the deep moss, at the distance of a few feet or yards from 
the water. They were composed of a great quantity of dry grass and other 
vegetable substances ; and the eggs were always placed directly on this bed 
without the intervention of the down and feathers, which, however, sur- 
rounded them, and which, as I observed, the bird always uses to cover them 
when she is about to leave the nest for a time. Should she be deprived of 
her eggs, she goes in search of a male, and lays another set ; but unless a 
robbery of this kind happens, she raises only a single brood in the season. 
But although this is the case in Labrador, I was assured that this species 
rears two broods yearly in Texas, although, having been but a short time in 
that country, I cannot vouch for the truth of this assertion. The eggs are 
two inches and a quarter in length, one inch and five eighths in breadth, 
shaped like those of the domestic fowl, with a smooth surface, and of a 
uniform yellowish-white colour, like that of ivory tarnished by long expo- 
sure. The young, like those of the Mallard, acquire the full beauty of their 
