CANADA GOOSE. 269 



part of the season. The celebrated naturalist 

 just named, mentions a curious fact connected 

 with the history of this duck, which shows how 

 strong is its partiality for that particular species 

 of grass, on which it comes annually, so many 

 hundreds of leagues to feed. 



" In the severe winter of seventeen hundred 

 and seventy-nine and eighty," he says, " the 

 grass, on the roots of which these birds feed, was 

 almost wholly destroyed in the James river. In 

 the month of January, the wind continued to 

 blow from W. N. W. for twenty-one days, 

 which caused such low tides in the river, that 

 the grass froze to the ice every where, and, a 

 thaw coming on suddenly, the whole was raised 

 by the roots and carried off by a fresh. The 

 next winter a few of these ducks were seen, but 

 they soon went away again; and, for many 

 years after, they continued to be scarce;. and, 

 even to the present 'day, in the opinion of 

 my informant, have never 'been as plenty as 

 before." 



The canvass-back seldom wanders far along 

 the course of the rivers which empty into the 

 Chesapeake, but the red-head, although delight- 

 ing also in the head-waters of the bay, is often 

 shot a considerable distance up the Susquehanna. 



