DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: Family Anatidae [157] 



numbers in the alkaline lake country of eastern Oregon, particularly in 

 Klamath, Lake, and Harney Counties, and are frequently found in pairs. 

 Until 1936 neither of the authors had ever found a nest. Since that time 

 a number of pairs have nested each year at Malheur Lake. 



Our records indicate that the vanguard of the Canvas-backs arrives in 

 September (earliest dates, September 2.0, Multnomah County, and Sep- 

 tember 2.5, Harney County), but the species does not become common 

 until November. These ducks remain on the Columbia River and on the 

 coastal bays and lakes through the winter until early May (latest record 

 is May 5, Tillamook County). We have found the greatest concentra- 

 tions on Tillamook Bay, where in January and February we have fre- 

 quently seen rafts estimated to contain more than 5,000 birds. 



It seems evident that most of the Canvas-backs come down the Colum- 

 bia River from the great midcontinent nesting grounds rather than down 

 the coast. All observers report the species as decidedly uncommon on 

 Puget Sound, which would not be the case if there were a coastal flight 

 line. On the contrary, it is regularly and commonly found on the Colum- 

 bia River and on the Oregon coast. There is no doubt whatever that the 

 flight has greatly decreased in the past 10 years and that this magnificent 

 waterfowl annually is becoming progressively scarcer. 



The lordly Canvas-back is stamped by gourmets and epicures as the 

 finest of American waterfowl. Perhaps its reputation as a table bird has 

 had something to do with its great decrease in numbers, although we can 

 say frankly that, in common with other species of diving ducks that 

 frequent the bays and lakes of the Oregon coast, it is frequently of very 

 inferior table quality. When it is able to feast on ample quantities of its 

 favorite eelgrass or on grain, it lives up to its reputation; but when, as 

 frequently occurs, it feeds on the abundant snails and other small mollusks 

 of those waters, it becomes so strong that only those with defective 

 olfactory organs are able to remain in the house while one is being cooked. 



Nine stomachs from Klamath Falls showed that the Canvas-backs in 

 that area had taken the same type of food as other ducks frequenting the 

 district. Five stomachs were filled with seeds and tubers of a pondweed 

 (Potamogeton pecfinatus), and three others contained pondweed to the 

 extent of more than 50 per cent of the meal, the balance being made up 

 of seeds of a sedge, Scirpus, a smartweed (Polygonum mublenbergit), Hippuris 

 vulgaris, Myriophyllum, Brasenia schreberi, and M.enyanthes trifoliata. One 

 nearly empty stomach contained a few insects, including a water beetle 

 and two flies. Of three stomachs taken at intervals in the salt-water bays 

 of Tillamook County, two were filled with the remains of mollusk shells 

 and the third contained remains of four small crabs, bits of mollusk^shells 

 and rootstalks, and leaves and seeds of eelgrass (^Zostera marina), a favorite 

 food of this duck as well as of the brant in many western bays.^ 



