134 
THE SUMMER DUCK. 
becomes familiar. They have even been so far domesticated 
as to run about at large in the barn-yard like ordinary fowls. 
In France they have also been acclimated and tamed, and 
have bred in this condition. 
ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 
The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico and 
many of the West India islands. During the whole of our 
winters, they are occasionally seen in the states south of 
the Potomac. On the 10th of January (says Wilson), I 
met with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. In 
the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. 
In Pennsylvania, the female usually begins to lay late m 
April or early in May. Instances have been known where 
the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a fork of 
the branches ; usually, however, the inside of a hollow tree 
is selected for this purpose. 
On the 18th of May I visited a tree containing the nest 
of a Summer Duck, on the banks of Tuckahoe river, New 
J ersey. It was an old, grotesque white oak, whose top had 
been torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the 
bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hollow 
and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, de- 
cayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with down, 
doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. These eggs 
were of an exact oval shape, less than those of a hen, the 
surface exceedingly fine grained, and of the highest polish, 
