80 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



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

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

 the neighbors at twelve-and-a-half cents a-piece, without the 

 feathers. The wounded ones were generally abandoned as be- 

 ing too difficult to be come up with. They continued about for 

 three weeks, and during a greater part of that time, a continual 

 cannonading was heard from every quarter. The gunners called 

 them Sea Ducks. They were all Canvass-backs, at that time on 

 their way to the North, when this floating feast attracted their 

 attention, and for a while an-ested them in their course. A pair 

 of these very ducks I myself bought in the Philadelphia market 

 at the time, from an Egg Harbor gunner, and never met with 

 their superior either in weight or excellence of flesh. When it 

 was known among these people the loss they had sustained, in 

 selling for twenty-five cents what would have brought them from 

 a dollar to a dollar and a half per pair, universal surprise and 

 regret were naturally enough excited." — Wilson's American Or- 

 nithology. 



RED-HEADED DUCK. 



Red-headed Duck, Anas Fenna ; Wils. FuUgula Ferina ; Sw. Sf 

 Rich. Red-headed Duck, or Fochard ; Nuttall. Red-headed 

 Duck, Fnligula Ferina ; Audubon. 



" Specific Character. — Bill bluish, toward the end black, and 

 about two inches and a quarter long; irides yellowish-red. 

 Adult male with the head, which is rather large, and the upjier 

 part of the neck all round, dark reddish-chestnut, brightest on 

 the hind neck ; lower part of the neck, extending on the back 

 and upper part of the breast, black ; abdomen white, darker 

 toward the vent, where it is barred with undulating lines of 

 dusky ; flanks gray,* closely barred with black, scapulars the 

 same ; primaries brownish-gray, secondaries lighter ; back 

 gi'ayish-brown, barred with fine lines of white ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts blackish-brown ; tail feathers grayisli-brown, lighter 



