CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 26? 



flying up and down the river in great distress for food^ 

 soon crowded to the spot, so that the whole open space 

 in the ice was not only covered by them, but vast num- 

 bers stood around on the edge. The gunners fired three 

 rounds in concert ; after which they picked up eighty- 

 eight birds, and might have collected more, had they 

 been able to reach the wounded ones at the extremity of 

 the ice. Wilson records an instance, not necessary to 

 repeat in detail, where the roots of their favourite plant 

 were nearly all torn up by the sudden rising of the tide 

 after a thaw, from a spot which had always been one of 

 the chief resorts of the birds : this accident, however, 

 drove them away; for although a few of the ducks were 

 seen the next winter, as if to reconnoitre their former 

 haunt, they soon went away. 



The colours of the male will now be described. The 

 bill is glossy black ; irides dark red : the cheeks and 

 fore part of the head are blackish brown ; but the rest 

 of the head, and the greater part of the neck, is glossy 

 reddish chestnut or rufous ; this colour ends in a broad 

 patch of black, which covers the upper part of the 

 breast, and spreads round to the back : the upper 

 plumage, including the back, scapulars, and tertials, are 

 white, delicately marked with innumerable transverse 

 waved lines, as if done with a pencil : the lower parts 

 of the breast, and also the belly, are the same ; but the 

 lines are scarcely perceptible on the breast, although 

 darker and thicker towards the vent : the wing covers 

 are grey, with numerous specks of blackish : the quills 

 are pale cinereous ; but two or three of the tertials have 

 a narrow edging of deep black : the tail is very short, 

 pointed, and of a cinereous brown colour : vent and 

 tail covers black : inner wing covers white : legs and 

 feet cinereous. The male is two feet long. 



The female is rather smaller ; and is thus described 

 by AV^ilson : — '' Crown blackish brown: cheeks and 

 throat of a pale drab : neck dull brown : breast, as far 

 as the black extends on the male, dull brown, skirted 

 in places with pale drab : back dusky white, crossed 



