and chin, a fine slate blue, highest on the chin; throat, breast and sides, as far as the thighs, a reddish hazel; lower part of the neck and sides of the same, resplendent changeable gold, green and purplish crimson, the latter most predominant; the ground color, slate (the plumage of this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends); belly and vent, white; lower part of the breast, fading into a pale, vivacious red; thighs, the same; legs and feet, lake, seamed with white; back rump and tail-coverts, dark slate, spotted on the shoulders with a few scattered marks of black; the scapulars, tinged with brown; greater coverts, light slate; primaries and secondaries, dull black, the former tipped and edged with brownish white; tail, long and greatly cuniform, all the feathers tapering toward the point, the two middle ones plain, deep black, and the other five, on each side, hoary white, when each is crossed on the inner vane with a broad spot of black, and nearer the root with another of ferruginous; primaries, edged with white; bastard wing, black.

The female is about half an inch shorter and an inch less in extent; breast, cinereous brown; upper part of the neck inclining to ash; the spot of changeable gold, green and carmine, much less and not so brilliant; tail-coverts, brownish slate; naked orbits, slatecolored; in all other respects like the male in color, but less vivid. and more tinged with brown; the eyes not so brilliant an orange. In both the tail has only twelve feathers.

THE WOOD OR SUMMER DUCK.

This is the finest of all our ducks, and the beauty of its dress is in perfect harmony with its gentle manners. A characteristic trait. is the moving of its tail from one side to the other, which sometimes looks almost like wagging. It swims with as much ease and grace, and seemingly with as little effort, as it flies among the branches and trunks of trees. The cry of the female is a longstretched "Pi-ai-wee-wee-wee," and the warning sound of the male is a not less melodious "O-eek, O-eek." It seems to shun the

neighborhood of men less than any other wild duck, and is by no means in a hurry to leave its breeding place, even if buildings are in construction close by. Easier than the rest of the tribe, wood ducks are reconciled to, and regularly breed in, captivity, if a suitable chance is offered them.

They live mostly on grain, several aquatic plants, chestnuts, acorns, beech-mast, etc., also on worms, snails and other insects, which they pick up among the dry leaves or catch in the air. Their full beauty and loveliness shows itself best shortly before and during the mating time. Toward March the flock separates, and every single pair now looks out for a convenient breeding-place. To this end the male roams about the woods, alights on a high tree in which he expects to find a hole for a nest, walks easily on the limbs, inspecting every hole he can find, and is often perfectly satisfied with a hole made by the fox squirrel, or even a cleft in the rock. The female squeezes herself with astonishing ease through the entrance, which often seems to be a great deal too narrow for her. The male keeps watch outside during inspection by the female, encouraging her by his tender chatterings, or warning her of supposed danger by his timely "O-eek, O-eek," after which both take to flight. If they have once built a nest they return to it every year.

The male, although very peaceful, is very courageous when his jealousy is aroused. Any other male coming near him is always kept at a proper distance by unmistakable signs and motions. The female begins to lay in the first days of May. The eggs, seven to twelve in number, are small, oblong and perfectly white. The hatching-time lasts, as with most of the duck tribe, twenty-seven or twenty-eight days. When the last egg is laid, the female lines the nest with the soft down of her breast, and covers the eggs with the same when she flies out. While she takes all the parental care to herself, the male repairs to a suitable watery place to pass through his moulting time, which begins in July and is ended the first part of September, giving him a dress distinguished from that of the female only by the white marking of his throat and the greater brilliancy of his plumage.

The nest of the wood duck is sometimes a considerable distance from any water, and quite high from the ground. From the entrance to the nest itself it is sometimes over six feet. As soon as the young ones are all hatched, the female carries them, one by one, in her bill, to the water, leaving them to the care of the male till she has brought the last one, when she herself takes care of them. again. If the tree on which the nest is happens to overhang the water, she merely tumbles them out of the nest. Wood ducks generally live together in small flocks of from six to twelve- -оссаsionally they are seen in flocks of more than a hundred; this occurs chiefly in the fall. Toward October the young ones begin to moult; at the same time the male parent, who reappears now in his bridal dress, joins them again. The flesh of the wood duck is very tender and held in good esteem.

The wood duck is nineteen inches in length, and two feet four inches in extent; bill, red, margined with black; a spot of black lies between the nostrils, reaching nearly to the tip, which is also of the same color, and furnished with a large hooked nail; irides, orange red; front, crown and pendent crest, rich glossy bronze green ending in violet, elegantly marked with a line of pure white running from the upper mandible over the eye, and with another band of white proceeding from behind the eye, both mingling their long pendent plumes with the green and violet ones, producing a rich effect; cheeks and upper sides of the upper neck, violet; chin, throat and collar round the neck, pure white, curving up in the form of a crescent nearly to the posterior part of the eye; the white collar is bounded below with black; breast, dark violet brown, marked on the fore part with minute triangular spots of white, increasing in size until they spread into the white of the belly; each side of the breast is bounded by a large crescent of white, and that again by a broader one of black; sides, under the wings, thickly and beautifully marked with undulating parallel lines of black, on a ground of yellowish drab; the flanks are ornamented with broad alternate semi-circular bands of black and white; sides of the vent, rich light violet; tail-coverts, long, of a hair-like texture at the sides, over which they descend, and of a deep black glossed with green; back, dusky bronze, reflecting green; scapulars, black; tail, tapering, dark glossy green above, below dusky; primaries, dusky, silvery hoar without, tipped with violet blue; secondaries, greenish blue, tipped with white; wingcoverts, violet blue, tipped with black; vent, dusky; legs and feet, yellowish red; claws, strong and hooked.

BLUE-WINGED TEAL.

The blue-winged teal is the first of the tribe that returns to us in the autumn from its breeding place in the North. They are usually seen early in September, along the shores where they sit in the mud close to the edge of the water so crowded together that the gunners often kill great numbers at a single discharge. When a

flock is discovered thus sitting and sunning themselves, the experienced gunner runs his bateau ashore at some distance below or above them, and, getting out, pushes it before him over the slippery mud, concealing himself all the while behind it; by this method he can sometimes approach within twenty yards of the flock, among which he generally makes a great slaughter. They fly rapidly, and when they alight drop down suddenly like the snipe or woodcock, among the reeds or on the mud. They feed chiefly on vegetable food, and are eagerly fond of the seeds of the reeds or wild oats. Their flesh is excellent; and after their residence for a short time among the reeds, become very fat. As the first frost comes on, they proceed to the South, being a delicate bird, very susceptible of cold. They abound in the inundated rice fields in the Southern States, where vast numbers are taken in traps placed on small dry eminences that here and there rise above the water. These places are strewed with rice, and by the common contrivance called a "figure four" they are caught alive in hollow traps. In the month of April they pass through Pennsylvania for the North; but make little stay at that season. They are numerous on the Hudson opposite to the Catskill Mountains. They rarely visit the seashore.

This species measures about fourteen inches in length, and twenty-two inches in extent; the bill is long in proportion, and of a dark dusky slate; the front and upper part of the head are black, from the eye to the chin is a large crescent of white; the rest of the head and half of the neck is of a dark slate richly glossed with green and violet, remainder of the neck and breast is black or dusky, thickly marked with semi-circles of brownish white, elegantly intersecting each other; belly, pale brown, barred with dusky, in narrow lines; sides and vent, the same tint, spotted with oval marks of dusky; flanks, elegantly waved with large semicircles of pale brown; sides of the vent, pure white; under tailcoverts, black; back, deep brownish black, each feather waved with large semi-circles of brownish white; lesser wing-coverts, a bright light blue; primaries, dusky brown; secondaries, black; speculum or beauty spot, rich green; tertials, edged with black or light blue,