XXVII 



THE RED-HEAD 



THE gray back of the red- head duck is similar but 

 darker than that of the canvas-back. The color 

 of the head is the same or nearly so, the dark chestnut- 

 red being brighter in this species than in the canvas- 

 back. The shape of the two heads and the color of 

 the bills, as I have observed, render the identification 

 easy, and when their food is the same as the latter 

 birds, they are excellent on the table. Their flesh 

 often has a fishy or sedgy taste, and then may be said 

 to resemble that of the scaups or black-heads more 

 than the canvas-backs. 



I have shot red-heads on the waters of Long Island 

 and as far west as Dakota, and do not regard these 

 birds as equal to the mallards, teal, or wood duck. 

 In the West, like that of many of the shore-birds, their 

 flesh is usually better than that of the birds shot on 

 Long Island Sound or the bays along the Atlantic 

 Coast, for the reason that it has not the sedgy or fishy 

 taste so often observed in salt-water birds. As a rule, 

 I think the Western sportsmen are inclined to stand 

 up for their ducks, as it were, and insist that they are 

 superior to the sea-ducks. M}^ early education was 

 acquired, however, on the waters of the Shinnecock 

 Bay and on Long Island Sound, and I was prepared 

 to defend even the merganser or shell-drake as food 



i8i 



