4l8 CANVAS-BACKED DUCKS. 



places therefore often make good stands for duck 

 shooting. In coast shooting the movements of wild 

 fowl depend altogether upon the state of the tide ; with 

 the utmost regularity they repair to certain banks 

 which form their feeding grounds as the tide recedes 

 from them returning seawards as it covers them again. 



On the South African coast, immense flocks of 

 waterfowl may be seen skimming along the wave 

 crests, on their way to and from such places, with such 

 regularity as to time that one can tell the exact state 

 of the tide by their movements. Flock follows flock 

 with the regularity of a military expedition, all going 

 in the same direction. We used often to \vatch these 

 flights with great interest, speeding upon their way 

 day after day upon these wild and storm-beaten 

 coasts, where heavy tangles of kelp, and other giant 

 seaweeds may often be seen, almost filling the shal- 

 lows. In America one of the great wildfowl grounds 

 used to be Chesapeake Bay, the great inland marine lagoon 

 that divides the mainland on the borders of the States 

 of Maryland and Virginia. This used to be, and 

 indeed is still, the home of innumerable myriads of the 

 celebrated canvas-backed duck and other wildfowl. 

 The canvas-back (Anas Valisnerid) is a deep water 

 duck, which mainly gets its food by diving. It feeds 

 upon what is there known as the wild celery 

 ( Valisneria Spiralis], a bulbous aquatic plant that grows 

 mostly in deep water, either brackish or fresh, and the 

 delicacy of flavour imparted to the flesh of the canvas- 

 back as a bird for table use is no doubt produced 

 by the wild celery they have eaten.* 



* See Shooting on Upland, Marsh, and Stream, Edited by W. B. 

 Leffingwell, 1890, pp., 406 7. 



