BIRDS 281 



the Canada goose and the mallard, teal, pintail, widgeon, 

 shoveller or spoonbill, canvasback, redhead, bluebill and other 

 ducks, provide not only sport, but very enjoyable food during 

 the shooting season. Of these perhaps the most notable are 

 the mallard, which is primarily a fresh water duck and is the 

 ancestor of most of our domesticated races, and the canvasback, 

 a salt water species especially abundant from Chesapeake Bay 

 south along the Carolina Coast, and on the whole, more prized 

 for its flavor than any other duck. The special flavor of the 

 east coast canvasback may be due to its feeding largely on 

 wild celery ( Vail isneria) . To the uneducated palate, however, 

 the milder-flavored fresh water or river ducks will be more 

 enjoyable than the canvasbacks, redheads and bluebills of 

 the coast waters. 



The wading and shore birds include the order Herodiones, 

 or ibises, herons and bitterns, the Paludicola, cranes, rails and 

 coots, and the LimicolfS, comprising the plover, curlew, 

 sandpipers and snipes. These orders include numerous game 

 birds such as the rails, woodcock, jacksnipe, various plovers, 

 curlews, yellowlegs and sandpipers. In rare instances cranes 

 may invade grain fields, but the food of most of the waders 

 is obtained from the marshes or bay and lake shores, and 

 consists chiefly of small animals, running all the way from frogs 

 down to insects. The rails, however, have a fondness for 

 seeds, especially wild rice, and the clapper rail and sora, or 

 Carolina rail, become very fat in the autumn and are much 

 hunted in the marshes of the South Atlantic States. The 

 woodcock frequents thick brush and covert in the Eastern States 

 and lies there concealed in daytime, issuing at dusk to search 

 for food on marshy ground. It is thus rather owl-like in habit 

 and with its big head and eyes is indeed rather owl-like in 

 appearance except of course for its long bill and snipe's legs. 

 Its flesh is highly esteemed, but in the absence of suitably 

 protecting game laws it has been so ruthlessly shot for market 

 that it is already a vanishing species. The jacksnipe, or Wil- 

 son's snipe, common over the whole country, is one of the best 

 known of game birds. It is a swift, erratic flyer, and fre- 

 quents open marshy ground. The golden plover is a special 



