Quite the most beautiful of the native Ducks, with a a richness of
plumage which gives it a bridal or festive appearance, this bird is
specifically named _Spousa_, which means betrothed. It is also called
Summer Duck, Bridal Duck, Wood Widgeon, Acorn Duck and Tree Duck.
It is a fresh water fowl, and exclusively so in the selection of its
nesting haunts. It inhabits the whole of temperate North America, north
to the fur countries, and is found in Cuba and sometimes in Europe. Its
favorite haunts are wooded bottom-lands, where it frequents the streams
and ponds, nesting in hollows of the largest trees. Sometimes a hole in
a horizontal limb is chosen that seems too small to hold the Duck's
plump body, and occasionally it makes use of the hole of an Owl or
Woodpecker, the entrance to which has been enlarged by decay.
Wilson visited a tree containing a nest of a Wood or Summer Duck, on
the banks of Tuckahoe river, New Jersey. The tree stood on a declivity
twenty yards from the water, and in its hollow and broken top, about six
feet down, on the soft decayed wood were thirteen eggs covered with down
from the mother's breast. The eggs were of an exact oval shape, the
surface smooth and fine grained, of a yellowish color resembling old
polished ivory. This tree had been occupied by the same pair, during
nesting time, for four successive years. The female had been seen to
carry down from the nest thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten
minutes. She caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the neck,
landed them safely at the foot of the tree, and finally led them to the
water. If the nest be directly over the water, the little birds as soon
as hatched drop into the water, breaking their fall by extending their
wings.
Many stories are told of their attachment to their nesting places.
For several years one observer saw a pair of Wood Ducks make their
nest in the hollow of a hickory which stood on the bank, half a dozen
yards from a river. In preparing to dam the river near this point, in
order to supply water to a neighboring city, the course of the river
was diverted, leaving the old bed an eighth of a mile behind,
notwithstanding which the ducks bred in the old place, the female
undaunted by the distance which she would have to travel to lead her
brood to the water.
While the females are laying, and afterwards when sitting, the male
usually perches on an adjoining limb and keeps watch. The common note of
the drake is _peet-peet_, and when standing sentinel, if apprehending
danger, he makes a noise not unlike the crowing of a young cock,
_oe-eek_. The drake does not assist in sitting on the eggs, and the
female is left in the lurch in the same manner as the Partridge.
The Wood Duck has been repeatedly tamed and partially domesticated. It
feeds freely on corn meal soaked in water, and as it grows, catches
flies with great dexterity.
[Illustration: From col. F. C. Baker.
ANHINGA OR SNAKE BIRD.]