THE CANVAS-BACK. 603 



upper neck reddish brown without purplish gloss, blackening on crown and chin ; 

 the sides less heavily waved with dusky ; the white bars of upper parts much wider 

 than the dusky (hence entire back conspicuously lighter in tone) ; upper mandi- 

 ble dusky at base, bluish only between nostril and black tip; iris red. Adult 

 female : Similar to that of preceding species, but proportioned like male ; bill 

 correspondingly different; feathers of back and scapulars more or less wavy- 

 barred with white. The female Red-head is sparingly speckled above with dusky 

 and whitish, but never barred. Length 20.00-23.50 (5O8.-596-9) ; wing 9.00 

 (228.6) ; tail 2.90 (73.7) ; bill 2.35 (59.7) ; tarsus 1.75 (44.5). 



Recognition Marks. Mallard size ; slope of culmen continuous with fore- 

 head ; reddish brown head and light canvas back. For detailed comparison with 

 A. americana see above. 



Nesting. Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground of marshes and 

 grassy sloughs, of grasses, etc., lined sparingly with feathers. Eggs, 6-10, buffy 

 white with a greenish or bluish tinge. Av. size, 2.45 x 1.75 (62.2 x 44.5). 



General Range. Nearly all of North America, breeding from the north- 

 western states northward to Alaska. 



Range in Ohio. Not uncommon on Lake Erie during migrations ; less com- 

 mon on reservoirs ; rare elsewhere in state. 



"TELL me what you eat and I will tell you what you are" might be re- 

 sented by a self-respecting human, but it applies pretty accurately to the flavor 

 of ducks. Various writers are wont to extol a bird's flesh as "tender," 

 "juicy," "sapid," "delicious," or to condemn it as "gamy," "rank," "fishy," 

 "unpalatable," according to traditions which prevail locally; so that often the 

 testimony of no two observers will agree as to a duck's fitness or unfitness for 

 the table. The fact is, however, that the flavor of wild meat is pretty much 

 what the feeding of the last week or so has made it, so that it is possible for a 

 single bird to run the whole gamut from "sapid" to "fishy" in a single season. 

 The early Canvas-backs were found feeding upon the rank grass, or wild celery, 

 of Chesapeake Bay, and from this circumstance has arisen a most extravagant 

 appreciation of its flesh or the profession of it which has pursued the poor 

 duck from Manitoba to the Carolinas, and nearly wrought its ruin. But, as 

 Coues says, "there is little reason for squealing in barbaric joy over this over- 

 rated and generally under-done bird ; not one person in ten thousand can tell 

 it from any other duck on the table, and then only under the celery circum- 

 stance." The pursuit, however, has been so relentless, that there has been little 

 opportunity left for ornithologists to study the species quietly, and recent re- 

 ports of its nesting in the heavy reeds of North Dakota sloughs, serve only 

 to emphasize our comparative lack of knowledge of the habits and home life of 

 the Canvas-back. 



