214 CAME BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



its departure for its breeding grounds in the far North. It arrives 

 on its return journey late in October, and remains on the rivers, 

 lakes and sloughs until the cold weather, by freezing up its feeding 

 grounds, forces it to go further south. It is altogether probable 

 that a few of these birds breed in the Rocky Mountain region 

 within the limits of the United States, though the great body pass 

 on to more boreal latitudes. 



The diet of the Red-head is by preference vegetable, though in 

 default of a sufficiency of food of this nature, they will, like other 

 ducks, eat frogs, tadpoles, and various mollusks. In the West 

 they feed largely on corn and wheat which they glean from the 

 fields, and on wild oats, the seeds of the water lily, and the roots 

 and leaves of other aquatic plants. While feeding they mingle 

 freely with other ducks, but in flight they keep by themselves. 

 They are good swimmers and divers, though by no means as ex- 

 pert as the more truly maritime ducks. The Red-heads come up 

 well to decoys, and in the West they are most successfully pursued 

 by shooting from a blind near their feeding grounds. The decoys 

 are anchored on the spot where the ducks feed, and the gunner 

 from his place of concealment has nothing to do but to load and 

 fire. On our Atlantic coast this species is shot in the same man- 

 ner as the Canvas-back and Broad-bill, z. e., from a battery, from 

 points, or by toling. These methods will be referred to more in 

 detail farther on. This species is quite abundant on the Pacific 

 coast where it is found, during winter at least, associated with the 

 flocks of Mallards, Broad-bills, Canvas-backs and other ducks so 

 abundant there at that season. 



Fuligula vallisneria. — Steph. Canvas-back Duck. 



The Canvas-back is, without doubt, the most sought after 

 and widely known of all our ducks, and in localities where it can 

 obtain the food to which it owes the peculiarly delicate flavor for 

 which it is so famous, its reputation for excellence is well deserved. 

 When, however, it is obliged to content itself with a diet chiefly 

 of animal food, it becomes merely a very ordinai-y table bird. 



The Canvas-back is colored somewhat like the Red-head, but 

 there is no reason for the confusion which exists in the minds of 

 so many people between the two species. A careful comparison 



