174 WILD-FOWL 



are better food than the sea-fowl or divers, as usually 

 they are free from all fishy taste, since their food is 

 largely corn, wild rice, and acorns. 



I have eaten the canvas-backs from the Chesapeake, 

 on the ground where they are supposed to be cooked 

 and served the best, and by no means dispute their 

 table qualities, but the wood-duck fed on acorns and 

 the mallards fed on corn and wild rice are their equal, 

 and I am inclined to believe, with many sportsmen of 

 my acquaintance and the great Audubon besides, that 

 the little blue-wing teal is their superior. I prefer, 

 however, the shooting of all game to the eating, and 

 am prepared to leave such questions to the epicures. 



The latter have always insisted that the canvas- 

 backs from the Chesapeake are the best, and there is 

 an amusing story of an Ohio senator, who argued with 

 some Eastern friends that the Western canvas-backs 

 were just as good. Secretly he procured some birds 

 from the Ohio marshes and served them at a dinner to 

 which his friends were invited. The birds, well cooked 

 and served, were excellent, and during the repast the 

 Eastern epicures often asked their host to admit their 

 superiority. This he did, much to his amusement, of 

 course, and later to their discomfiture. 



At the Lake Erie clubs and on many other Western 

 shooting grounds the canvas-backs and the mallards 

 and other dabblers may be shot the same day. Not 

 on the same ground, however. The canvas-backs will 

 be found diving in the deeper water, the mallards dab- 

 bling in the shallow ponds near by. 



I have regarded the canvas-backs as the wilder 

 birds, possibly because I have shot them only when 



