ANAS AMERICANA. AMERICAN WIDGEON, OR BALD-PATE. 



:_ ^'-_ HIS fowl, like the red-head, during its 

 sojourn on the Chesapeake and Potomac, 

 is the constant companion of the canvas- 

 back, upon whose superior skill in diving 

 it depends for a supply of the tender root 

 of the valisineria, which it filches from 

 these ducks as soon as they come to the 

 . top of the water with it in their mouths. 

 The bald-pates, as these ducks are most commonly called on the 

 Chesapeake, are not far inferior in flavor to the canvas-back, and 

 when in good order it is not easy to distinguish them from the 

 above duck. Those killed on other streams, though excellent 

 eating, will not compare with those that feed on the flats of the 

 Chesapeake. Widgeons are extensively scattered throughout the 

 whole of our Atlantic States, and are abundant in some of the 



West India islands ; they are well known in the Delaware Bay. 



311*^ 



