AQUATIC FOWL. 177 



was in a few days covered with ducks of a kind altogether un- 

 known to the people of that quarter. The gunners of the neigh- 

 bourhood collected in boats, in every direction, shooting them ; 

 and so successful were they, that, as Mr. Beasley informs me, 

 two hundred and forty were killed in one day, and sold among 

 the neighbours, at twelve and a half cents a piece, without the 

 feathers. 



"The canvas-back is two feet long, and three feet in extent, 

 and, when in good order, weighs four pounds ; the bill is large, 

 rising high in the head, three inches in length, and one inch and 

 three-eighths thick at the base, of a glossy black; eye, very 

 small ; irides, dark red ; cheeks and fore part of the head, 

 blackish brown ; rest of the head and greater part of the neck, 

 bright glossy reddish chesnut, ending in a broad space of black 

 that covers the upper part of the breast, and spreads round to 

 the back; back, scapulars, and tertials, white, faintly marked 

 with an infinite number of transverse waving lines or points, 

 as if done with a pencil; whole lower parts of the breast, also 

 the belly, white, slightly pencilled in the same manner, scarcely 

 perceptible on the breast, pretty thick towards the vent ; wing 

 coverts, gray, with numerous specks of blackish ; primaries and 

 secondaries, pale, slate, two or three of the latter of which 

 nearest the body are finely edged with deep velvety black, the 

 former dusky at the tips; tail, very short, pointed, consisting of 

 fourteen feathers of a hoary brown ; vent, and tail-coverts, black ; 

 lining of the wing, white ; legs and feet, very pale ash, the latter 

 three inches in width, a circumstance which partly accounts for 

 its great powers of swimming. 



"The female is somewhat less than the male, and weighs three 

 pounds and three quarters ; the crown is blackish brown ; cheeks 

 and throat of a pale drab ; neck, dull brown ; breast, as far as the 

 black extends on the male, dull brown, skirted in places with pale 

 drab ; back, dusky white, crossed with fine waving lines ; belly, 

 of the same dull white, pencilled like the back ; wings, feet, and 

 bill, as in the male ; tail-coverts, dusky ; vent, white ; waved 

 with brown." 



Having concluded the description of waterfowl, I would call 

 the particular attention of the keepers of them to an operation, 

 which, if not performed, will subject the owners to considerable 

 loss. I mean the 



