ANATID^ — FULIGULIN^ : SEA DUCKS. 



927 



{Subgenus Aristonetta.) 



2E. (A.) vallisne'ria. (Name of a genus of aquatic plants, the wild celery, V. spiralis, 

 dedicated to Antonio Vallisneri, an Italian naturalist. Figs. ()43, 647, 648.) Canvas-back. 

 White-back. Bull-neck. "Can." Adult ^■. Head close- feathered. Bill high at base 

 and narrow throughout or scarcely widened toward end, sloping gradually up to top of head in 

 line with sweep of forehead, altogether 

 somewhat like a Goose's in shape ; de- 

 cidedly longer than head, 2h inches to 

 nearly or quite 3 in length, measured 

 along culmen ; nostrils reaching middle 

 of hill, their fore end half-way from upper 

 corner to end of hill. Bill not blue, 

 black-belted, but blackish throughout. 

 Eyes red. Feet grayish-blue. Head and upper neck not cop- 

 pery brownish-red, but dark reddish-brown, further much 

 obscured with dusky or quite blackish about the bill and on 

 top. Ground color of back white, very finely vermiculated 

 with zigzag blackish bars much narrower than the interven- 

 ing spaces, and tending to break up, or mostly broken up, into 

 little chains of dots across the feathers ; the resulting silvery- 

 gray tone consequently several shades lighter than in the Red- 

 head. Other characters substantially as in that species. 9 

 iiiffers as 9 Red-head does; head dark snuffy-brown, etc., but 

 bill colored as in ^, and sufficiently preserves its peculiar 

 shape ; eyes reddish-brown. Size of the Red-head, or a little 

 larger ; tarsus 1 .75 ; bill longer, as above ; culmen much over 

 2 inclies; gape about 2.67; line from upper corner to tip 

 nearly or quite 3.00, of which distance the nostrils reach half- 

 way. North America at large ; breeds from the northwestern 

 tier of States N. to Alaska, in tlie Rocky Mts. farther S. and 

 in Nebraska, Oregon, and Nevada; winters in the U. S. and 



southward to Guatemala, formerly abundantly along Atlantic .size. (R'rom nature, by J. h 

 coast S. from the middle districts, especially in the Chesa- "'''^'■' 



peake ; rare from the middle districts northward. I have found it breeding in North Dakota, 

 hit. 49°. Nesting quite like that of the Red-head ; eggs less buffy, greenish-drab or grayish- 

 olive, of a darker shade than usual in eggs of the Red-head. When feeding on wild celery the 

 tlcsh acquires a i)eculiarly fine flavor, which has gained for the bird great renown among gas- 

 tronomers ; l)Ut its flesh is of no special excellence under other circumstances, in fact inferior to 

 tliat of most River Ducks (Anatinfe). There is little reason for squealing in barbaric joy over 

 this over-rated and generally under-done bird ; not one person in ten thousand can tell it from 

 any other Duck on the table, and then only under the celery circumstance just said. One of 

 the most noted old Washington restaurateurs and caterers told me that he could tell a plucked 

 ("anvas-back with the head off from a similarly dressed or rather undressed Red-head, "by 

 tlu! mash." I was some time in discovering tluit by "mash" he nieant mesh, i. e.. the pattern 

 l)resented on the bare skin of the breast and belly by the little points whence the feathers grew. 

 The earliest reference to this bird in literature that I know of is in President Jefferson's cele- 

 brated Notes on Virginia, where it api)eiirs as the " Shcldrach, or Canvas back." r. rj. p. 77 of 

 edition of 17d6. {Fuligula vallisneria of 2d-4th eds. of the Key.) 



Fio. C4S. — Canvas-back, \ nat. 

 Ridg. 



