362 DUCK-SHOOTING. 



have had them serve me the trick you complain of 

 when they were at the last gasp — so nearly dead, 

 that I liave pushed out and been on the point of 

 picking them up. When not so badly hurt, they 

 will swim off with their bill only projecting above 

 the surface, and if there is the least wind this is 

 entirely invisible. The trick is known to others of 

 the duck family; even the ingenuous wood-duck 

 will have recourse to the same mean subterfuge 

 occasionally, as one that was but slightly wounded 

 proved to me to-day." 



"Is it true," inquired the fisherman, "that other 

 ducks steal from the canvas-backs the wild celery 

 that they have exhausted themselves in procur- 

 ing?" 



" The widgeons have the credit of doing so ; but 

 I have never seen, and somewhat doubt it. The 

 canvas-back is too large and strong a duck to be 

 readily trifled with, and is by no means exhausted 

 by diving to the depth of a few feet after celery. 

 This celery, as we call it — which has a long, deli- 

 cate leaf, resembling broad-grass, and bears the 

 name of Zostera valisneria among the botanists — 

 grows in water about five feet deep, and its roots 

 furnish the favorite and most fattening food of the 

 canvas-backs, red-heads, and, strange to say, mud- 

 hens. The widgeon is not a large nor powerful 

 duck; can dive no further than to put its head 

 under water, while its tail stands perpendicularly 

 above the surface ; and, although a terrible torment 

 to the weak and gentle mud-hen, would think twice 



