CANVAS-BACK 



247 



in with a small dog, especially trained for the purpose. Some quiet 

 place was selected where a large flock of Canvas-backs was bedded a short 

 distance offshore, and where the hunters could conceal themselves in 

 some suitable ambush near the water. A small dog was kept running up 

 and down the beach after sticks or stones, with a white or red handker- 

 chief fluttering from some part of its body, which would so arouse the 

 curiosity of the ducks that they would raise their heads and swim in to- 

 ward shore to study the cause of such peculiar actions. Often their dis- 

 covery of the hidden danger came too late, for as they turned to swim 

 away they would receive a broadside from a battery of guns and large 

 numbers would be killed. Tolling is now prohibited in many places." 

 The Canvas-back is a late migrant, and often stays in the north in 

 the vicinity of the Great Lakes until its favourite lakes and ponds are 

 frozen, many dying of starvation as a result. Cahn (1912) describes an 

 instance of this on Cayuga Lake in February, 1912, as follows: "A flock 

 of 22 was approached to within 30 feet one afternoon before they gave 

 any heed, but finally they rose heavily and flew low over the ice a dis- 

 tance of 60 yards, where they lit, and immediately assumed a resting 

 posture. Two of these ducks were captured alive, both being taken al- 

 most as easily as one would take an apple from the ground. The first 

 made one feeble flight when approached but that was all. He was fol- 

 lowed and picked up off the ice without a struggle. The second was taken 



from the ice without having 

 made any attempt to fly. The 

 condition of both of these 

 birds was pitiful, to say the 

 least. Hardly able to stand 

 erect, and too feeble to mind 

 what was going on around 

 them, they sat on the ice in a 

 more or less dazed condition. 

 The feathers were unpreened, 

 and those of the breast and 

 belly were yellow and matted 

 with grease." 



The most famous winter 

 resort of the Canvas-back is 

 along the coastal region of 

 Virginia and North Carolina, 

 with its numberless estuaries 

 and tributary streams. There 

 they gather in vast numbers 

 with hosts of other diving 

 ducks to feed on the roots and 

 seeds of the foxtail grass 

 which grows abundantly in 



