50 
SURF DUCK. 
among the surf or the raging billows, where it seems as unconcerned as if it 
were on the most tranquil waters. It rises on wing, however, with con- 
siderable difficulty, and in this respect resembles the Velvet Duck; but 
when once fairly under way, it flies with rapidity and to a great distance, 
passing close to the water during heavy gales, but at the height of forty or 
fifty yards in calm and pleasant weather. It is an uncommonly shy bird, 
and therefore difficult to be obtained, unless shot at while on wing, or when 
asleep, and as it were at anchor on our bays, or near the shore, for it dives 
as suddenly as the Velvet and Scoter Ducks, eluding even the best percus- 
sion-locked guns. The female, which was killed as she flew off from the 
nest, uttered a rough uncouth guttural cry, somewhat resembling that of the 
Goosander on similar occasions ; and I have never heard any other sound 
from either sex. 
The migration of the Surf Ducks eastward from our southern coast, begins 
at a very early season, as in the beginning of March none are to be seen in 
the New Orleans markets. When I was at Eastport in Maine, on the 7th 
of May, 1838, they were all proceeding eastward. How far up the St. 
Lawrence they advance in winter I have not learned, but they must give a 
decided preference to the waters of that noble stream, if I may judge by the 
vast numbers which I saw apparently coming from them as we approached 
the Labrador coast. I have never seen this species on any fresh-water lake 
or river, in any part of the interior, and therefore consider it as truly a 
marine Duck. 
During their stay with us, they are always seen in considerable numbers 
together, and, unless perhaps during the breeding season, they seem to be 
gregarious; for even during their travels northward they always move in 
large and compact bodies. When I was at Newfoundland, I was assured 
that they breed there in considerable numbers on the lakes of the interior. 
My friend Professor MacCulloch, of Pictou, however, informs me that 
none are seen in Nova Scotia in summer. A gentleman of Boston, with 
whom I once crossed the Atlantic, assured me that the species is extremely 
abundant on the northern shores of the Pacific Ocean, and about the mouth 
of Mackenzie’s river. Mr. Townsend mentions it as being also found on 
the Columbia. It appears that a single specimen of the Surf Duck has been 
procured on the shores of Great Britain ; and this has induced the orni- 
thologists of that country to introduce it as a constituent of its Fauna. 
In all the individuals which I have examined, I have found the stomach 
to contain fish of different kinds, several species of shell-fish, and quantities 
of gravel and sand, some of the fragments being of large size. Their flesh 
is tough, rank, and fishy, so as to be scarcely fit for food. 
In the young males, in the month of September, the whole upper plumage 
