THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 321 
Carve him as a dish for gods, 
Not hew him as a carcass for the hounds.” 
Then, if he be indeed the very man, it is a pleasure in 
itself to observe: him. Mark how dantily between his 
thumb and forefinger only he poises the elaborate and 
burnished steel ; how dexterously and without effort he 
slides it through the rich scarlet muscle, glowing like a 
ripe pomegranate when its skin is severed, through car- 
tilage and joint unerring— 
“ And as he draws his trenchant steel away, 
Mark how the blood of Cesar follows it,” 
till the broad dish, of late so bright and stainless, is filled 
even to o’erflowing with the rare, crimson gravy, and 
the whole atmosphere of the dining room is perfumed 
with the noble fwmet. 
And, now to descend from no inappropriate raptures 
to the world of common sense and the terrestrial limits 
of Duckdom, be it known, that all this delicacy of flavor, 
all this rare juciness and melting pingwidity, are attrib- 
utable solely to the nicety and gentlemanly habits of 
your Chesapeake Canvas-Back, in that he feeds, revers- 
ing the modus operands of my friends, the knights of the 
tea-table, wisely, but not too well. Your Canvas-Back 
of the Chesapeake Bay, but more especially of the Gun- 
powder river, is the nobleman of that ancient dominion ; 
whereas, all other Canvas-Backs, even of the James, the 
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