822 AMERICAN GAME. 
Potomac, and the Patapsco, shall be at once distinguish- 
ed as mere parvenues and merchant princes; as- those 
from the Hudson, the Sound, or the great South Bay, 
rank as the mere snobs and vulgarians—the very out- 
casts of Duckdom. 
The wonderful difference which exists between these 
fowl, when shot on the waters of the Chesapeake and 
elsewhere, arises solely from the difference of their food. 
The Canvas-Back ranges across many degrees of this 
continent, from the Falls of St. Peter’s on the Upper 
Mississippi, whence I possess a pair of fine stuffed speci- 
mens, sent to me by my friend Mr. Sibley, now M. C. 
for Minnesota, corresponding in every particular with 
the same birds from the southern estuaries, so far north 
as the Long Island Sound, and the great lagoons between 
its southern side and the outer beaches on which I have 
frequently killed it. But nowhere is it a superior duck, 
except on the waters and tributaries of the Chesapeake, 
where its favorite food, the wild celery, as it is incorrect- 
ly called, Zostera Valisneria, or Valisneria Americana, 
grows in the greatest abundance, and imparts to it that 
peculiar richness and delicacy, which it bestows on none 
of its congeners, though all these, too, it wonderfully 
improves, particularly the Widgeon, or Baldpate, Anas 
Americana, regarded as second to it longo imtervallo, 
and the Red-Headed Duck, or Pochard, Fuligula ferina, 
which may be regarded as its cousin german. While 
speaking of the birds in this relation I may mention that 
