THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 
Fuligula Valisneria. 
Or a truth this is the royalty of Ducks. No other 
water-fowl to him is equal, or second, or in anywise com- 
parable; and the unhappy man who pictures to him- 
self, in the vain imaginings of his own heart, ‘that he is 
a gourmet, that he is blessed with a refined, delicate, 
discriminating palate; that he is capable of criticism, 
nay, of accumulated judgment, upon edibles, not having 
tasted yet a Gunpowder River Canvas-Back, reeking 
from the spit, with no condiment, save a modicum of 
salt and a stick of his bird’s kindred plant, the celery, 
may go back to his rudiments; for when he shall once 
have been blessed with fruition of that rare mouthful, he 
will be compelled, how reluctant soever, to admit that 
all his boasted knowledge is but the knowledge of his 
own woful ignorance. 
And while we are speaking of our king of water-fowl, 
