172 FIELD SHOOTING. 



who have made the \vonderful, exquisite, unparal. 

 leled excellence of the canvas-back a matter of 

 superstition. It is indeed as excellent as any 

 duck, and for luscious richness the ducks at least 

 equal any other description of bird. The canvas- 

 back is a great deal better in proportion to the 

 praises heaped upon it ' than the brook-trout is ; 

 for whatever sport they may give to the angler, 

 the "speckled beauties" are nothing like as good 

 to eat as many other fish not thought much of. 

 Fashion, however, goes a great way in these mat- 

 ters, and few are as candid as the Irishman, who, 

 having gone some distance in a sedan-chair with- 

 out a seat, replied, in answer to the question 

 how he liked it : 



" Faith, but for the name of the thing I might 

 as well have walked ! " 



The mallards winter in the south for the most 

 part, though a few remain on the Sangamon all 

 the cold season, unless the weather is very in- 

 tense and the frost so long continued and rigid 

 as to freeze up all the springy pools of that 

 river. When they come north in the spring, a 

 few remain with us and make their nests in the 

 Winnebago Swamp and the bottoms of the San- 

 gamon River and Salt Creek. But the vast ma- 



