THE VELVET DUCK CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 



375 



The Musk DucK: is now commonly domesticated, feeds and fattens 

 well, is deservedly esteemed as food, more particularly the youog, and 

 though derived from the mildest of climates, endures the winter of 

 the Eastern and Northern States without any difficulty or hardship. 



THE VELVET DUCK. 



The Velvet Duck IB common to the northern regions of bot) 

 continents, where 

 it retires late in 

 the spring to pass 

 the period of re- 

 production. Like 

 the preceding, 

 they live princi- 

 pally upon the 

 Bea and its pro- 

 ductions, diving 

 often in broken 

 water for shell- 

 fish and other 

 marine bodies. 

 They breed along 

 the Arctic coasts 

 and around Hud- 

 son's Bay and 

 Labrador, retir- 

 ing inland for the 



VF.LVKT DUCK. 



purpose; nesting 



contiguous to small fresh-water pools in the shelter of Juniper or Pine 

 bushes, laying from eight to ten white eggs, which the female closely 

 covers with her elastic feather. The young are attended by the 

 female only, who remains with her brood in these seclusions until 

 they are nearly ready to fly. She also makes a show of defending 

 them, and the young themselves often, by their great alertness in 

 diving, escape the attacks of their enemies. ' They are abundant in 

 the Orkneys and Hebrides, as well as in Norway, Sweden, Lapland ; 

 and are common in some parts of Siberia and Kamtschatka. Near 

 Kingis, on the banks of the Tornea in Lapland, a little beyond the 

 67th parallel, Skioldebrand remarked them nesting in trees, particu- 

 larly Pines, accompanied by the Golden Eye (Fuligula cangula.) The 

 'nhabitants, he also adds, knowing the trouble they have in forming 

 their nests, attach hollowed pieces of wood to the trees for their con- 

 venience ; and in recompense receive a quantity of their egga, which 

 supply the place of those of the common fowl. 



CANVASS- BACKED DUCK. 



The Canvass-Back, so well known as a delicacy of the table, i a 

 pecies peculiar to the continent of America. It breeds, according 

 to Richardson, in all parts of the remote fur countries from the 50ti 



