406 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



" Why," said I, laughingly, "I have just received a let- 

 ter from a friend on the Chesapeake, and he uses almost 

 your language, only he says the canvas-back duck is 

 entitled to the crown." I wished so much, then, that 

 the two advocates could have been present, for their 

 discussion would have afforded me both pleasure and 

 profit. Both past the middle age of life, one reared in 

 the East, on the Chesapeake, the other brought up in the 

 West, where game could be had for the seeking, and who 

 had bagged hundreds of turkeys, surely none could be 

 found more competent or experienced than they, and 

 yet each proclaimed the bird he knew best as the noblest 

 game bird in existence. 



When one seeks the canvas-back duck of to-day, he 

 little knows, that is, if a young man, of the great abun- 

 dance that once existed of these birds. It is generally 

 supposed that, in the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern 

 waters, the birds are found in greatest plenty, and many 

 believe that they are a bird so rare, and so delicious in 

 their flavor, that they confine their presence entirely to the 

 East. This is not so, as they are found, at times, in the 

 Middle and Western States, while in California and 

 Oregon they are fully as plenty as in the regions of the 

 Chesapeake. Where food is plenty the food which 

 they especially like, and which gives to them the deli- 

 cious flavor for which they are noted, the Valisneria 

 spiralis there they may be found. Some are shot in 

 the marshes and lakes of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indi- 

 ana, Minnesota, and other Northern and Western States, 

 the places they go to depending entirely upon the food 

 to be obtained. 



Canvas-back ducks are deep-water ducks, and seek 

 their food in an entirely different manner from the mal- 

 lards and other shoal-water ducks, which feed similarly 

 to tame ducks, for canvas-backs get their food by div- 



