346 CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 



Note. It is a circumstance calculated to excite our surprise, 

 that the Canvas-back, one of the commonest species of our coun- 

 try, a Duck which frequents the waters of the Chesapeake in 

 flocks of countless thousands, should yet have been either over- 

 looked by the naturalists of Europe, or confounded with the 

 Pochard, a species whose characters are so obviously different. 

 But that this is the fact 1 feel well assured, since I have care- 

 fully examined every author of repute, to which I have had ac- 

 cess, and have not been enabled to find any description which 

 will correspond to the subject before us. The species, then, 

 we hope, will stand as Wilson's own; and it is no small addi- 

 tion to the fame of the American Ornithology that it contains 

 the first scientific account of the finest Duck that any country 

 can boast of. 



The Canvas-back frequents the Delaware in considerable num- 

 bers. The Vallisneria grows pretty abundantly, in various 

 places, from Burlington, New Jersey, to Eagle Point, a few 

 miles below Philadelphia. .Wherever this plant is found there 

 will the Ducks be; and they will frequently venture within 

 reach of their enemies' weapons rather than abstain from the 

 gratification of their appetite for this delicious food. The shoot- 

 ers in the neghbourhood of Philadelphia for many years were in 

 the habit of supplying our markets with this species, which al- 

 ways bore the name of Red-heads or Red-necks; and their ig- 

 norance of its being the true Canvas-back was cunningly fos- 

 tered by our neighbours of the Chesapeake, who boldly assert- 

 ed that only their waters were favoured with this species, and 

 that all other Ducks, which seemed to claim affinity, were a 

 spurious race, unworthy of consanguinity. Hence at the same 

 time when a pair of legitimate Canvas-backs, proudly exhibit- 

 ed fronrthe mail-coach, from Havre-de-Grace, readily sold for 

 two dollars and fifty cents, a pair of the identical species, as fat, 

 as heavy, as delicious, but which had been unfortunately killed 

 in the Delaware, brought only one dollar; and the lucky shoot- 

 er thought himself sufficiently rewarded in obtaining twenty- 

 five per cent, more for his Red-necks than he could obtain for 



