to escape over the pelican ring and depart for 
quieter regions. 
It 
It was on one of their excursions to the center 
of the lake late in the summer that Baldpate 
first met those handsome ducks known as canvas- 
backs. These famous gray-backed birds are 
very fond of the roots of plants that grow on the 
bottom of the lake. They get these by diving. 
Widgeons like this food also, but they cannot do 
the necessary deep swimming to secure it. Bald- 
pate, watching others of his kind, learned a trick 
that brought him many a dainty morsel for 
which he did very little work. Swimming 
among the feeding canvasbacks he would watch 
until one came to the surface with food, and 
then before it could be eaten he would snatch it 
from the bill of the surprised and disappointed 
diver. This was great sport and among the 
widgeon folk it is considered eminently fitting 
and proper thus to rob a canvasback whenever an 
opportunity is offered. 
So the days were filled with various pleasures 
ae ae | 
