2 CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 
This enhancement of its value I look upon as having arisen from 
the preference given to it by the epicures of our Middle Districts, who 
have strangely lauded it as superior to every other duck in the world. 
This alleged pre-eminence has indeed become so deeply impressed on 
the minds of many of our Southerns, that they have on various occa- 
sions procured the transportation of numbers of Canvass-backs from | 
Baltimore to Charleston in South Carolina, and even to Savannah in 
Georgia, although this species is by no means uncommon within a few 
miles of the latter city, as well as on the Great Santee River. I well 
remember that on my pointing out to a friend, now alas dead, several 
dozens of these birds in the market of Savannah, he would scarcely be- 
lieve that I was not mistaken, and assured me that they were looked upon 
as being poor, dry, and very fishy, in short not half so good as Mallards, 
or Blue-winged Teals. With this I cordially agreed, for there, at that 
season, they are not better than represented. 
I found this species in considerable numbers on and about the nu- 
merous inlets and rivers of East Florida; but did not see a single indi- 
vidual on the Gulf of St Lawrence, along the coast of Labrador, or on 
that of Newfoundland. 
It arrives in the neighbourhood of New Orleans from the 20th of 
October to the end of December, coming in flocks of eight or twelve, 
probably the members of a single family, and, unlike many other species, 
keeping in small groups during winter. At the approach of spring 
however they flock together, and about the first of April depart in large, 
bodies. During their stay, they are wont to alight on wet prairies 
and muddy ponds in all open places, feeding on the seeds of various 
plants, of which may be particularized the wild oat and the water lily. 
According to ALExANDER WILsow, who first described this species, 
their arrival in autumn in the Middle Districts takes place about the 
15th of October ; but more recent writers say, that “ unless the 
weather to the north has been severe, the Canvass-back rarely appears 
till the middle of November.” With this I fully agree, being con- 
vinced that their journeys to and from their breeding places are per- 
formed across the country. Were this perfectly ascertained, it would 
prove that this species, unlike most other ducks, instead of removing 
farther southward in autumn and winter, takes what may be called 
a lateral march toward our Eastern Districts, in which it remains 
until the weather has become too cold for its constitution, when it is 
