308 LEAVIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



■\vlien it cannot filch the tender roots from the canvas-backs. It 

 is often shot in the Dehiware, Hudson, and other rivers, and visits 

 the streams of the South as the winter progresses. The flesh of 

 these fowls is so near akin to that of the canvas-backs, that the 

 most delicate palate can hardly distinguish one from the other ; and 

 we have seen many amusing mistakes made by persons professing 

 to be able to tell one duck from the other when served for the 

 table. 



"The red-head is twenty inches in length and two feet six 

 inches in extent ; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 

 long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnished 

 with a large broad nail at the extremity ; irides flame-colored ; 

 plumage of the head long, velvety and inflated, running high 

 above the base of the bill ; head, and about two inches of the 

 neck, deep glossy reddish-chestnut ; rest of the neck and upper 

 part of the breast black, spreading round to the back ; belly white, 

 becoming dusky towards the vent by closely-marked undulating 

 lines of black ; 'back and scapulars bluish-white, rendered gray by 

 numerous transverse waving lines of black ; lesser wing-coverts 

 brownish-ash ; wing-quills very pale slate, dusky at the tips ; lower 

 part of the back and sides under the wings brownish-black, crossed 

 with regular zigzag lines of whitish ; vent, rump, and tail-coverts, 

 black; legs and feet dark ash." The female has the upper part 

 of the head dusky brown, and the plumage generally is not so 

 bright as that of the male. 



The red-head weighs from a pound and a half to two pounds. 



This duck resembles very closely the poachard, red-headed 

 widgeon, or dun-bird, of England, and is considered by many as 

 the same identical bird. The description of the one corresponds 

 very much with that of the other, as will be seen by the following, 

 taken from Daniel. " The poachard is about the size of a widgeon, 

 weighs one pound twelve ounces ; its length is nineteen inches ; 

 breadth two feet and a half; the bill is broader than the widgeon's, 

 of a deep lead-color, with a black tip ; irides orange ; the head 

 and neck deep chestnut ; the lower part of the neck and breast, 



