120 
SUMMER DUCK. 
SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK ANAS SPONSA. 
Plate LXX. Fig. 3. 
Le Canard d’Ete, Briss. vi. p. 351. 11. pi. 32. fig. 2. — Le beau Canard huppe, 
Buff. ix. p. 246. — PI. Enl. 980, 981 Summer duck, Catesby, i. pi. 97. — Edtv. 
pi. 101. — Arct. Zool. No. 943. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 546. — Peak's Museum, 
No. 2872. 
DENDRONESSA SPONSJ.— Richardson, Swainson.* 
Anas sponsa, Bonap. Synop. p. 385. — Dendronessa sponsa, North. Zool. ii. 446, 
This most beautiful of all our ducks has probably no supe- 
rior among its whole tribe for richness and variety of colours. 
It is called the wood duck, from the circumstance of its breed- 
ing in hollow trees ; and the summer duck, from remaining 
with us chiefly during the summer. It is familiarly known in 
every quarter of the United States, from Florida to Lake On- 
tario, in the neighbourhood of which latter place I have my- 
* These lovely ducks may be said to represent an incessorial form among 
the anatidcB ; they build and perch on trees, and spend as much time on land 
as upon the waters ; Dr Richardson has given this group, containing few mem- 
bers, the title of dendronessa from their arboreal habits. Our present species is 
the only one belonging to America, where it ranges rather to the south than 
north ; the others, I believe, are all confined to India. They are remarkable 
for the beauty and splendour of their plumage, its glossy, silky, texture, and for 
the singular form of the scapulars, which, instead of an extreme developement 
in length, receive it in the contrary proportion of breadth ; and instead of lying 
flat, in some stand perpendicular to the back. They are all adorned with an 
ample crest, pendulous, and running down the back of the neck. They are 
easily domesticated, but I do not know that they have been yet of much utility 
in this state, being more kept on account of their beauty, and few have been in- 
troduced except to our menageries ; with a little trouble at first, they might 
form a much more common ornament about our artificial pieces of water. It 
is the only form of a tree ducJt common to this continent ; in other countries 
there are, however, two or three others of very great importance in the natural 
system, whose structure and habits have y^t been almost entirely overlooked 
or lost sight of. These seem to range principally over India, and more sparingly 
in Africa ; and the summer duck is the solitary instance, the United States the 
nearly extreme limit, of its own peculiarities in this division of the world. — Ed. 
