PREFACE. 
V 
trust, will amply reward attention ; as neither pains nor expense has 
been spared to obtain correct information relating to them, which 
he knew would be justly valued by a discerning and respectable 
community. 
Of the domestic habits of the greater part of the subjects 
above referred to, the scientific world unfortunately remains in 
ignorance. Formed by nature with strength of wing capable of 
supporting immense aerial journies, the Ducks, in the vernal sea- 
son, impelled by that mysterious principle, vaguely termed in- 
stinct, prepare to seek those climes which will aflbrd them an 
asylum during the important period of incubation ; and where they 
and their offspring may escape the observation of destructive man. 
To the dreary regions of the north these wanderers then repair; 
each family, probably, occupying those peculiar districts, which 
had been the heritage of their progenitors for ages ; and which 
furnish them with an abundance of food particularly adapted to 
their wants, and to the rearing of their young. In that season, 
could the zealous naturalist safely tread those unknown shoies, 
what a rich harvest would reward his enterprise and research ! 
He would there behold, on their own native streams, in all the 
pride of independence, those various acquaintance whose periodi- 
cal visits to his section of the globe he never failed to welcome ; 
he would explore their favorite haunts ; trace the operations of na- 
ture in the important work of perpetuating their kind ; note their 
simple manners before a knowledge of the lords of creation had 
taught them vigilance and stratagem ; and finally behold them 
congregating in prodigious multitudes, to prepare, as the season of 
2 B 
VOL. VIII. 
