120 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Massachusetts: Dr. L. C. Sanl'ord writes me that about 1890 

 there was a sudden and nearly total disappearance of Canvas- 

 backs in Chesapeake Bay, and that in the fall of 1891 they 

 appeared in large numbers for the first time (so far as the 

 memory of man goes back) at Port Rowan Bay, on the north 

 side of Lake Erie. The gunners state that wild celery was 

 noticed there about that time. In the latter part of Novem- 

 ber of that year Dr. Sanford passed through scattered flocks 

 of Canvas-backs at Port Rowan Bay that extended for about 

 seven miles, and must have numbered a hundred thousand 

 birds. The Chesapeake Bay Ducks probably stopped on 

 Lake Erie. 



The great breeding grounds of the Canvas-back lie in the 

 Canadian northwest. To reach Massachusetts they must 

 travel a little south of east, and as numbers are seen in migra- 

 tion on the Great Lakes, and as the lakes lie in a direct line 

 between their breeding grounds and their fall and winter 

 haunts in this State, it seems probable that our birds come 

 from the northwest. The Canvas-back is a good diver, and 

 is able to reach its food in twenty to twenty-five feet of 

 water. It is said to be more successful than any other bird 

 in pulling up the roots of the wild celery. The wings are the 

 chief propelling power in diving, as is the case with many 

 other water birds. The Canvas-back is of high food value 

 only when it has been feeding on wild celery; otherwise it is 

 often thin, and usually poor and fishy in flavor when taken 

 on the Atlantic coast. As it finds its favorite food in some 

 of the ponds on Martha's Vineyard, this may account for 

 the fact that it is more common there than elsewhere in 

 Massachusetts. From its northwestern breeding grounds it 

 migrates south and southeast, reaching the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts. Only the most northerly edge of the great fan-shaped 

 migrating movement reaches New England. 



The Canvas-back is not by any means confined to the 

 Vallisneria in feeding, but takes the seeds of wild rice, water 

 lilies, pondweeds and other vegetable matter, as well as fish, 

 tadpoles, leeches, mollusks and insects. 



