CANADA GOOSE. 265 



unsuspicious of his proximity on the point, 

 being constantly engaged in diving and re- 

 appearing, while the water around was mud- 

 died and strewn with blades of grass, which 

 they had torn up from the shoal. With the ex- 

 ception of an occasional squabble when one 

 individual endeavored to rob another of its prize, 

 they were very silent; but had there been a 

 number of widgeons or red-heads among them, 

 our informant supposed the harmony of the feast 

 had been more frequently disturbed. Occasion- 

 ally an old duck raised its body on the water, 

 and seemed to look warily around ; then, as 

 another came up beside it, the former took its 

 turn at diving, so that the whole flock was never 

 at one moment beneath the surface. On the in- 

 ner edge of the rank, between it and the shore, a 

 pair of little buffel-headed ducks were feeding 

 on the floating grass, but seemed careful in their 

 motions not to come in contact with the larger 

 species. 



The canvass-back and the red-head breed far 

 to the north. The nest of the former, it is said, 

 has been found in upper California, and upon 

 the banks and marshes of various streams of the 

 Rocky Mountains. They appear in the Chesa- 

 peake towards the latter part of October, and 



