PA ey WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
pair, one of each, side by side, and a child will see the 
distinction. The bill of the canvas-back being fully three 
inches in length, high at the base, running wedge- 
shaped to the tip, and in color black ; on the other 
hand, the bill of the red-head is about two and one- 
fourth inches long, slightly concave, and in color dark 
blue or slate. If the reader will only bear this in mind 
he will never get mixed or undecided when he knocks 
one down and thinks he has a canvas-back, when in 
fact it is a red-head, 
These birds are dainty but voracious feeders. They 
only want what they like, and when they find it, hate aw- 
fully to leave it, and will stand lots of shooting. What 
appears to tickle their palates most are the roots and 
blades of tender grass, wild celery, smart-weed, although 
they have no hesitancy in skimming floating seeds from 
the surface of some quiet pond; or, during an over- 
flow, nipping the buds from the twigs amidst which 
they swim. 
In the fall they are comparatively scarce, the spring 
being the season of their greatest abundance. The 
water being high on the Mississippi, excellent shooting 
may be had then. On the smaller inland rivers they 
are still more plenty, but only when the streams are 
swollen and set back, forming bayous and overflowing 
the adjacent bottom land. At such times, I have found 
them in great numbers and had splendid shooting, both 
flight and over decoys, in the deep woods of the Wap- 
sipinicon river. This is a winding, tortuous stream, 
extending through the state of Iowa from a_north- 
westerly direction, and emptying into the Mississippi 
twenty miles south of Clinton,—a treacherous stream, 
dull and lifeless, when the water is low; but when 
