Sea and Bay Ducks 



the feathers; white underneath; sides duslty; pointed tail 

 feathers darkest slate. Bill, longer than head and shaped like 

 a goose's, from 2.50 to 3 inches in length. Eyes red; feet 

 bluish gray. 



Female — Head, neck, collar around upper back and breast, cinna- 

 mon or snuff brown; lighter on the throat; back and sides 

 grayish brown marked with waving white lines; white 

 underneath. 



Range — North America at large, nesting from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and the upper tier of our western states to Alaska and 

 the farthest British possessions, and wintering in the United 

 States, especially in the Chesapeake and middle Texas regions, 

 southward to Central America. 



Season — Autumn and spring migrant, and winter resident. 



"There is little reason for squealing in barbaric joy over this 

 over-rated and generally underdone bird," says Dr. Coues; " not 

 one person in ten thousand can tell it from any other duck on the 

 table, and only then under the celery circumstances." Yet it is 

 this darling of the epicures that, with the stewed terrapin of 

 Maryland kitchens, has conferred on Baltimore the title of the 

 "gastronomic capital" of our country. There, where it is 

 brought to market fattened on the wild celery in the Chesapeake, 

 it is in its prime a tender, delicately flavored duck, but not one 

 whit more delicious than the canvasbacks taken in Wisconsin, 

 for example, where the celery beds cover hundreds of miles; or 

 the redheads that feed in the same place ; or, indeed, than many of 

 the river and pond ducks unknown to the gourmands of Mary- 

 land. Redheaded ducks are constantly palmed off at fancy prices 

 by unscrupulous dealers on uninformed caterers, who suffer only 

 in pocket-book by the deception; but the novice who wishes to 

 get what he is paying for is referred to the preceding biography 

 to learn the distinguishing marks of these close associates. 



After all it is the food it lives upon, and not its species, that 

 is responsible for any duck's flavor. Canvasbacks have an im- 

 mense range, and where no wild celery grows, and they must 

 harden their muscles in the active pursuit of fish, lizards, and 

 other animal diet, they become as tough and rank as a merganser, 

 ignored and even despised members of the duck clan these pre- 

 cieuses ridicules. 



The wild celery, or vallisneria spiralis, which is no celery at 

 all, but an eel grass growing entirely beneath the water, took its 



117 



