UPLAND SHOOTING. 
113 
feathers : the eggs, eight m number, lying on the former, sur¬ 
rounded with the down and some feathers of the bird to the 
height of about three inches. The internal diameter of the nest 
was about six inches, and its walls were nearly three in thick¬ 
ness. The female was sitting, but flew off* in silence as he ap¬ 
proached. The situation was a clump of tall, slender grass, on 
a rather sandy ridge, more than a hundred yards from the near 
est water, but surrounded by partially dried salt marshes. On 
the same island, in the course of several successive days, we 
saw many of these Ducks, which, by their actions, showed that 
they also had nests. I may here state my belief, that the Gad- 
wall, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, 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 respect¬ 
ing the migration of birds in general, is more than I can at pre¬ 
sent stop to consider. I have found the Black Ducks breeding 
on lakes near the Mississippi, as far up as to its confluence 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. Lawrence. It is even found on the Co¬ 
lumbia 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. 
“ 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 a few yards from the water ; they 
were composed of a great quantity of dry grass and other vege¬ 
table substances ; and the eggs were always placed directly on 
this bed, without the intervention of the down and feathers, 
which, however, surrounded them, and which, as I observed, 
the bird always uses to cover them, when she is about to leave 
them for a time. The eggs are two inches and a quarter in 
