148 DUCK SHOOTING. 



feathers often being whitish, and vermiculated with 

 dusky. The length is 20 to 22 inches. 



Of the American ducks, the canvas-back is easily 

 the most famous. Its flesh depends for its flavor en- 

 tirely on the food that the bird eats, and since for 

 many years it was chiefly killed where the so-called 

 wild celery abounds, the reputation of the canvas-back 

 was made by the individuals that fed on this grass. 



As a matter of fact, it may be doubted whether in 

 waters where this plant is abundant the canvas-back is 

 any better than some of its fellows of the duck tribe, 

 such as the redhead or the widgeon, which subsist 

 largely on the same food. But the fame of the canvas- 

 back is now too firmly established ever to be shaken, and 

 it will continue to be regarded, as it has so long been, as 

 the king of our ducks. 



The canvas-back is an American species, and has not 

 even any close relatives in the Old World. In winter it 

 ranges south as far as Central America, but confines it- 

 self to no portion of the country, being equally abund- 

 ant on both coasts, and in the interior as well. I have 

 killed it on the Atlantic coast, as well as in Souihern 

 California; and during the migrations it is abundant in 

 Montana, and generally throughout the interior. 



Years ago the canvas-back bred in the Northern 

 United States, toward the west, probably in Minnesota, 

 certainly in Dakota and Montana, but, as with so many 

 other species, the settling up of the northern country 

 has destroyed its breeding grounds, and it now, for the 

 most part, passes far to the northward to breed. Dr. 



