CANVAS-BACK. 305 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE NUMBERS OF DUCKS UPON CHESA- 

 PEAKE BAY. 



" Still files of ducks in streaming thousands pour; 

 At every bend their rising torrents roar." 



Notwithstanding the immense multitude of canvas-backs which 

 annually resort to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, they are 

 now said to be far less numerous than they were some years ago. 

 Of this fact we are not able to judge, but feel satisfied that the 

 species, although killed in numbers still greater than they have 

 been heretofore, can never become extinct, as some persons appre- 

 hend. The greatest safeguard to the continuation of the whole 

 duck race is the circumstance of their breeding in regions so 

 remote. They are besides so prolific, that every succeeding au- 

 tumn will bring down to their former haunts a wonderful increase 

 to the great numbers of those that necessarily escape the general 

 massacre. The large and increasing demand, however, for ducks 

 from the Chesapeake in particular, and the ingenious methods 

 resorted to to kill them, will no doubt eventually drive the larger 

 portion of the canvas-backs from their favorite feeding-grounds, 

 and thus cause them to become more widely dispersed over the 

 whole country. The comparative scarcity of them on these waters 

 will, perhaps, induce the erroneous belief of their speedy extinction ; 

 but such a thing we deem impossible, owing, as already stated, to 

 the habits of the whole duck tribe during the period of incubation. 

 During the season of 1850 and 1851, canvas-backs were very 

 plenty, and, owing to the unusual mildness of the weather and 

 the consequent increased slaughter of them from the surface-boats, 

 they were sold at unprecedented low prices in our markets. 



The early portion of the season of 1854 and 1855 was equally 

 prolific of the feathered race, insomuch that greater slaughter of 

 wild fowl was made on the flats of the Chesapeake and its numerous 

 tributaries than in any previous year. No less than three thou- 

 sand head of various kinds of ducks were killed in the vicinity of 



Havre de Grace alone on the first day which the duckers in a body 



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