ZOOLOGY. 103 



PTEROCYANEA DISCORS. 



The Common Blue-winged Teal. 

 Common throughout California and Oregon. 



PTEROCYANEA CCERULEATA. 

 The Western Blue-winged Teal. 



This elegant duck I did not see in northern California nor Oregon, and suspect it to be always 

 rare north of San Francisco. It is very common, however, south of that point, at Monterey, 

 San Diego, &c., and ranges to Chile, S. A. 



RYNCHASPIS CLYPEATA. 



The Shoveler. 

 The shoveler is not uncommon in winter about San Francisco, where we frequently shot them. 



FULIGULA MARILOIDES. 



The Scaup Duck. 

 Common about San Francisco and on the Columbia. 



AYTHYA VALISNERIANA. 

 The Canvas-back Duck. 



The canvas-back is generally distributed and well known throughout California and the 

 Territories of Oregon and Washington ; and there, as in the eastern States, is the most highly 

 prized for the table of all water birds. In the autumn and winter they congregate in large 

 numbers with other ducks on the bays and rivers of California. At such times the San Fran 

 cisco market is well supplied with them, and they command a price of from one dollar to one 

 dollar and fifty cents the pair. 



During the summer we found them more numerous than any other ducks in the lakes and 

 streams of the Cascade mountains. In those solitudes they nest and rear their young, as we 

 frequently saw the broods of young there, though the period of incubation had passed. They 

 were common in the marshes bordering the Columbia in November, when, with geese and other 

 ducks, they begin to retreat southward before the approaching winter. The number of canvas- 

 backs which we saw while duck-shooting in the bays of San Francisco and San Pablo was 

 astonishing. 



The specimens which I obtained there seemed not to differ appreciably from those of the Atlantic 

 coast ; and even if it should be true, as some would have us believe, that the bird is there inferior 

 in flavor to those of Chesapeake bay and the New Jersey marshes, I can testify that the western 

 canvass-backs are quite eatable. 



AYTHYA EKYTHROCEPHALA. 



The Red-head. 



This duck, like the canvas-back, is common in the San Francisco nrrket, and, as everywhere 

 else, is often sold and eaten as canvas-back. It is, however, an excellent bird for the table, 

 and the cheat is not so bad after all, especially as very few of those who eat them could tell the 

 difference by the flavor, unless the two species were brought to the table together. 



