WILD DUCKS. 293 
made, as they decoy in fine style, answer the ‘‘call” 
promptly, and are much less cautious than they are on 
sunny days. They arrive in the Atlantic States from the 
north between the first and the middle of October, but 
they are constant summer residents in the Territories be- 
yond the Rocky Mountains, as they nest in the vast and 
silent regions extending from Manitoba to Alaska. When 
they commence migrating, they move in immense masses, 
and cover all open waters where their favorite food, wild 
celery and wild rice, grow in abundance. They rarely 
stop anywhere but in open water; and if they are dis- 
turbed much on the feeding ground they leave it at once 
for safer quarters. Even the pot-hunting method of cap- 
turing them, by means of submerged nets placed on their 
feeding flats, is sure to drive them away in a short time, 
and the probability is that they will give such places 
a wide berth for the future; whereas, if they are shot 
only while “‘ trading ” from point to point, they will stay 
until the cold weather sends them south for the winter. 
When these birds live on wild rice, grain, and wild celery, 
they become exceedingly fat, juicy, and tender, but if they 
secure their food in tide-water marshes, their flesh is 
little better than that of mergansers. I have seen them 
so fat in some of the Western and Southern States that 
they could hardly rise from the water, and when they did, 
it was with much labor, and, evidently, against their will. 
They are readily approached when in that condition, as 
they do not take to flight until they are thoroughly 
alarmed. It is easier to bag them on cold, dark morn- 
ings, than when the weather is warm and bright, as they 
cling to their roosting places with greater tenacity, and 
will stand several rounds before they decide to leave. 
A close ally of the canvas-back, and one which is not 
readily distinguished from it by a novice, is the red-head, 
or pochard (Puligula ferina, var. americana), yet it may 
be easily identified by its difference in plumage, the form 
