290 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN". 



water-celery, when it cannot obtain tlie tender roots from tlie 

 Canvass-Baclvs. It is often sliot in the Delaware, Hudson, and 

 other rivers, and visits the streams of the South as the Winter 

 progresses. The flesh of these Fowls is so near akin to that of 

 the Canvass-Backs, that the most delicate palate can hardly dis- 

 tinguish one from the other, and we have seen many amusing 

 mistakes made by those persons professing to be able to tell 

 one Duck from the other when served for the table. 



"The Red-Head is twenty inches in length, and two feet six 

 inches in extent ; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two inches 

 long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, famished 

 with a large broad nail at the extremity; irides flame-colored; 

 plumage of the head long, velvety and inflated, running high 

 above the base of the bill ; head, and about two inches of the 

 neck, deep glossy reddish chestnut ; rest of the neck and upper 

 part of the breast black, spreading round to the back ; belly 

 white, becoming dusky towards the vent by closely-marked un- 

 dulating lines of black; back and scapulars bluish- white, ren- 

 dered gray by numerous transverse waving lines of black ; 

 lesser wing-coverts brownish ash ; wing-quills very pale slate, 

 dusky at the tips ; lower part of the back and sides under the 

 wings brownish-black, crossed with regular zigzag lines of 

 whitish ; vent, rump, and tail-coverts, black ; legs and feet dark 

 ash." The female has the upper part of the head dusky-brown, 

 and the plumage generally is not so bright as that of the 

 male. 



The Red-Head weighs from a pound and a half to two 

 pounds. This Duck resembles very closely the Poachard, Red- 

 Headed AVidgeon, or Dun-Bird, of England, and is considered 

 by many as the same identical Bird. The description of the 

 one corresponds very much with that of the other, as will be 

 seen by the following, taken from Daniel. "The Poachard is 

 about the size of a Widgeon, weighs one pound twelve ounces ; 

 its length is nineteen inches; breadth two feet and a half; the 

 bill is broader than the Widgeon's, of a deep lead color, with a 

 black tip ; irides orange ; the head and neck deep chestnut ; 

 the lower part of the neck and breast, and upper part of the 

 back, dusky-black ; scapulars and wing-coverts nearest the 



