322 AMERICAN GAME. 



Potomac, and the Patapsco, shall be at once distinguish- 

 , ed as mere parvenues and merchant princes ; as those 

 from the Hudson, the Sound, or the great South Bay, 

 rank as the mere snobs and vulgarians the very out- 

 casts of Duckdom. 



The wonderful difference which exists between these 

 fowl, when shot on the waters of the Chesapeake and 

 elsewhere, arises solely from the difference of their food. 

 The Canvas-Back ranges across many degrees of this 

 continent, from the Falls of St. Peter's on the Upper 

 Mississippi, whence I possess a pair of fine stuffed speci- 

 mens, sent to me by my friend Mr. Sibley, now M. C. 

 for Minnesota, corresponding in every particular with 

 the same birds from the southern estuaries, so far north 

 as the Long Island Sound, and the great lagoons between 

 its southern side and the outer beaches on which I have 

 frequently killed it. But nowhere is it a superior duck, 

 except on the waters and tributaries of the Chesapeake, 

 where its favorite food, the wild celery, as it is incorrect- 

 ly called, Zostera Yalisneria, or Valisneria Americana, 

 grows in the greatest abundance, and imparts to it that 

 peculiar richness and delicacy, which it bestows on none 

 of its congeners, though all these, too, it wonderfully 

 improves, particularly the Widgeon, or Baldpate, Anas 

 Americana, regarded as second to it longo intervallo, 

 and the Ked-Headed Duck, or Pochard, Fuligula ferina, 

 which may be regarded as its cousin german. "While 

 speaking of the birds in this relation I may mention that 



