346 MANUAL FOK YOUNG SPOETSMEN. 



Canadensis ; the brant, anas bernicla ; the scaup or broad- 

 bill, of two kinds, greater and smaller, anas marila ; the 

 dusky duck, anas obscura ; the red-head, fuligula ferina ; 

 occasionally the canvas-back, fuligula valisneria, which 

 is but a third-rate fowl where it cannot obtain the wild 

 celery, and inferior to both the varieties last mentioned ; 

 and the ring-necked duck, fuligula rufitorques. In 

 addition to these, the coarse and fishy sea-ducks, known as 

 coots, namely, the scoter, the velvet-duck, and the surf- 

 duck, and sometimes the harlequin-duck, the pied-duck, 

 the ring-duck, and even the eider-duck, are visitants to our 

 bays and beaches. Their flesh is, however, worthless, and 

 unless for specimens, or, in the case of the last named, for 

 its down, they are literally not worth the powder. The 

 mergansers, commonly known as shelldrakes, fall under the 

 tame category, as do also the south-southerlies, which, 

 however, for the most part, take far too good care of them- 

 selves to venture near enough to the stools to tempt the 

 gunner's forbearance. 



The little dippers, or buffet-headed ducks, are held in 

 small estimation from their inferior size, and on salt water 

 they are neither so fat nor so succulent as when killed on 

 inland ponds and streams, where they are highly and 

 deservedly esteemed ; and the same is the case with the 

 blue-winged teal, when it is found on the bays, as it is 

 at some seasons. 



The winter is the best season for the prosecution of 

 this sport, and the severer the frost, and the rougher the 

 winds and waters, the better the chance of success. It is, 

 therefore, no holiday work, no light matter to be under- 



