288 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE NUMBERS OF DUCKS UPON 

 CHESAPEAKE BAY. 



" Still files of Ducks in streaming thousands pour, 

 At eveiy bend their rising torrents roar." 



Notwithstanding the immense multitude of Canvass-Backs 

 that annually resort to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, they 

 are now said to be far less numerous than they were some years 

 ago. Of this fact we are not able to judge, but feel satisfied 

 that the species, although killed in numbers still greater than 

 they have been heretofore, can never become extinct, as some 

 persons apprehend. The greatest safeguard to the continuation 

 of the whole Duck race is the circumstance of their breeding in 

 regions so remote, and withal are so prolific, that every suc- 

 ceeding Autumn will bring down to their former haunts a won- 

 derful increase to the great numbers of those that must neces- 

 sarily escape the general massacre. The great and increasing 

 demand, however, for Ducks from the Chesapeake in particular, 

 and the ingenious methods resorted to, to kill them, will no 

 doubt eventually drive the larger portion of the Canvass-Backs 

 from their favorite feeding-grounds, and thus cause them to be- 

 come more widely disseminated over the whole country. The 

 comparative scarcity of them on these waters will, perhaps, 

 induce the erroneous belief of their near extinction, but such a 

 thing we deem impossible, owing, as before stated, to the habits 

 of the whole Duck tribe during the period of incubation. This 

 season of 1850, Canvass-Backs are very plenty, and, owing to 

 the unusual mildness of the season, and the consequent increased 

 slaughter of them from the Surface-boats, they are selling at 

 unusufJly low prices in our markets.* 



* The present season of 1854, the Duclcs are equally abundant. The first 

 day of the season, the Duckers killed three thousand Ducks in the vicinity of 

 Havre de Grace. 



