The Creoles of Louisiana name it “Violon,” on account of the whistling sound of its wings. It arrives in the neighbourhood of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi along with the Widgeon, and is fond of the company of the Red-head, to which it is about equal as an article of food. The Gadwalls are usually seen in small flocks, and during winter resort to the larger lakes and the pools in the interior of the great marshes, adjoining the waters of the Gulf. In that part of the country they feed on small fish, insects, and aquatic grasses. Fewer of them are found in Massachusetts and the State of New York than elsewhere, and this probably on account of these districts being more elevated and less marshy than those farther south. My friend Dr BACHMAN informs me that they are rather plentiful in South Carolina, where they are considered good eating, and where they arrive in the beginning of October, but are more frequently met with at that season, and in early spring, than during winter, when a single individual may sometimes be seen in a flock of other ducks. While we were in the Texas, in the latter part of April and the beginning of May, we found the Gadwall quite abundant on all the inland ponds and streams, as well as on the brackish pools and inlets of the islands and shores of Galveston Bay. Many of them had paired and separated from the other ducks; and I was assured that this species breeds there, as does the Dusky Duck, the Mallard, the Blue-winged Teal, the Widgeon, and the Shoveller, the young of all these species being plentiful in the end of June and beginning of July. I was satisfied as to the truth of the repeated assurances I had received on this subject, by observing the manners of individuals of all these species before my departure from that country. After a continuance of rainy weather, Gadwalls are found in great numbers on the vast prairies of Oppelousas and Attacapas, where I have been told they continue until very late in spring, and some remain to breed.