BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 119 



History. 



This Duck is considered to have no superior upon the 

 table. It once fed in countless multitudes along the Atlantic 

 coast, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay region. It has 

 now been greatly reduced in numbers in the south. Even 

 so long ago as 1832 Dr. J. J. Sharpies, in the Cabinet of 

 Natural History, states that the number of fowl on Chesa- 

 peake Bay was then decidedly less than in years past. 



In my early experience the Canvas-back was regarded as 

 little more than a straggler in New England, though occasion- 

 ally a few were taken. The number has been increasing, how- 

 ever, within recent years, and last year (1910) many were 

 seen in the ponds on Martha's Vineyard, a lesser number in 

 Barnstable, Bristol and Plymouth counties and a few strag- 

 glers wintered in or near Boston. Mr. Lewis W. Hill says 

 that his brother saw a " bunch " of twelve at Martha's 

 Vineyard (1908), and "last year" (1907) he himself killed 

 three out of a group of ten. Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes of 

 Ithaca, N. Y., says that Canvas-backs are far more numerous 

 there than formerly. About fifteen years ago they began to 

 appear about November 1, and since then larger numbers 

 come each year. In 1908 a " bed " of about five hundred 

 wintered. They are still considered rather rare in eastern 

 New York. Whether this increase is due to better spring 

 protection on their Canadian breeding grounds, or whether 

 more of the species than usual are now breeding to the north- 

 ward of New England, it is impossible to determine. Possibly 

 the introduction and increase of the wild celery {Vallisneria) 

 into several ponds in Massachusetts may have attracted 

 more of these birds than came here formerly. They are rare 

 to the north and east. There are not many records from 

 Essex County, Mass., and they are rated as very rare in 

 Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. A good supply of 

 favorite food is the main attraction to Ducks as well as all 

 other birds, and only constant persecution will drive them 

 from it. The following observations may furnish another 

 clew to the recent increase of Canvas-backs in New York and 



