tHil CAI^VASS-BACK DUCK. 145 



rivers produce. At our public dinners, hotels, and parti- 

 cular entertainments, the Canvass-Backs are universal 

 favourites. They not only grace but dignify the table, and 

 their very name conveys to the imagination of the eager 

 epicure the most comfortable and exhilarating ideas. Hence, 

 dn such occasions, it has not been uncommon to pay from 

 one to three dollars a pair for these Ducks ; and, indeed, at 

 8-ich times, if they can, they must be had, whatever may be 

 tl:3 price. 



The Canvass-Back will feed readily on grain, especially 

 wheat, and may be decoyed to particular places by baiting 

 them with that grain for several successive days. Some few 

 years since, a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near 

 the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in the autumn, and went 

 to pieces. The wheat floated out in vast quantities, and the 

 whole surface of the bay was in a few days covered with Ducks 

 of a kind altogether unknown to the people of that quarter. 

 The gunners of the neighbonrhood collected in boats, in every 

 direction, shooting them ; and so successful were they, that, 

 as Mr. Beaseley informs me, two hundred and forty were 

 killed in one day, and sold among the neighbours, at twelve 

 and a half cents apiece, without the feathers. The wounded 

 ones were generally abandoned, as being too difficult to 

 be come up with. They continued about for three weekis, 

 and during the greater part of that time a continual can- 

 DDnading was heard from every quarter. The gunners 

 •ailed them Sea Ducks. They were all Canvass-Backs, a* 



