DESCRIPTIVE LIST 71 



tunities of taking it in large numbers present a field for gunnery eagerly entered by 

 hundreds of coastwise people. They are generally shot over decoys, either from a 

 floating battery or blind. At night they frequently raft in great numbers, and from 

 Core Sound especially come many complaints that gunners illegally shoot them by 

 means of a light shining from the prow of the boat. As many as one hundred and 

 fifty are thus at times slaughtered in one night from a single boat. As yet the 

 State has failed to provide sufficient funds to employ an ample warden force to 

 suppress these violations, and as long as the sale of game is legalized, this tremen- 

 dous killing will doubtless continue. 



FIG. 43. REDHEAD (adult male). 



Redheads feed largely upon the so-called wild celery of the brackish waters of 

 the coast. This plant is in no sense a celery, but is the Vallisneria spiralis, or 

 common eel-grass, which one may often see washed in quantities upon the shores 

 and islands of our inner harbors. To procure their food the ducks must dive, often 

 to a depth of six feet or more. 



The Redhead bears a close resemblance to the far-famed Canvasback, from which, 

 however, it is readily distinguished by the shape of the bill, unless, forsooth, they 

 be served together, and then the finest connoisseur will find his past experience of 

 little avail in his attempts at identification. 



The Redhead usually retires northward in March. 



53. Marila valisineria (Wils.}. CANVASBACK. 



Ad. cf . Head and neck rufous-brown, chin and crown generally blackish; breast and upper 

 back black; rest of back, and usually wing-coverts, finely barred with wavy lines of black and 

 white, white lines wider; belly white; lower belly more or less finely barred with black; upper 

 and under tail-coverts black; sides white, much more lightly barred with wavy black lines than 

 back, or even entirely without bars. Ad. 9 . Head, neck, upper breast, and upper back cin- 

 namon, throat lighter, and, with front parts of head, more or less washed with rufous; back 



