LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL. 195 



possibly somewhat earlier, as it is inconspicuous at first. By Septem- 

 ber 1 they are in full eclipse, such as it is. Breeding plumage begins 

 to show in October and they are in full plumage again by November 1 . 

 Food. — The principal food of the canvasback, or at least the food 

 which has made it most famous as a table delicacy, is the so-called 

 " wild eel er}^ " {Vdllisneria spiralis); it is in no way related to our 

 garden celery and is more commonly known as " eelgrass," " tape 

 grass" or "channel weed" ; it grows most abundantly in the Chesa- 

 peake Bay region and is supposed to be the chief attraction for the 

 vast number of canvasbacks and other ducks which resort to these 

 waters in winter; but it also grows abundantly all along the Atlantic 

 coast in estuaries and tidal streams, where the current is not too 

 swift, the long slender, ribbonlike leaves floating in or out Avith the 

 tide in dense masses, often so thick as to impede the progress of 

 boats or seriously interfere with the use of oars. The canvasback 

 prefers to feed on the root of the plant only, which is white and deli- 

 cate in flavor and said to resemble young celery; it is obtained by 

 diving and uj)rooting the plant; the roots are bitten off and eaten 

 and the leaves or stems are left to float away in tangled masses. 

 Wliile feeding on Vallisneria the canvasback is often accompanied by 

 other species of ducks which appreciate the same food, such as the 

 redhead, baldpate, and scaup duck; the redhead and scaup can dive 

 almost as well as the canvasback and so succeed in pulling up the 

 roots for themselves; but the baldpate has to be content with the 

 parts discarded by the canvasback or with what it can steal by 

 force; the baldpate frequently lies in wait for the canvasback and, 

 as soon as it appears on the surface with a bill full of choice roots, 

 attacks it and attempts to steal what it can; the American coot 

 also persecutes the canvasback in the same way. Audubon (1840) 

 says, writing of its food in Chesapeake Bay, that the Vallisneria — 



is at times so reduced in quantity that this duck, and several other species which 

 are equally fond of it, are obliged to have recourse to fishes, tadpoles, water lizards, 

 leeches, snails, and mollueca, as well as such seeds as they can meet with, all of 

 which have been in greater or less quantity found in their stomachs. 



On the inland lakes, streams, and marshy ponds, along its migra- 

 tion routes and on its breeding grounds, the canvasback lives on a 

 variety of food both vegetable and animal, such as aquatic plants of 

 various kinds, wild oats, water-lily and lotus seeds, small fishes, 

 crustaceans, mollusks, insects and their larvae. Dr. F. Henry Yorke 

 (1899) has added the following list of plants eaten by the canvasback: 

 Teal moss (Limnohium), blue flag (Iris versicolor), water chinquapin 

 {Nymphaea lutea), tuber-bearing water lily (Nymphaea tuherosa) , yel- 

 low pond lily (Nuphar Kalamanum), water milfoil ( MyriopJiyllum) , 

 water starwort (CaZZ-i^nc^e), bladderwort (Utricularia) and a number 

 of other water plants. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) say: 



