THE WINTER DUCK. 3839 
all meat is appetizing—but at the comfortable dinner- 
table, with all appliances and means to boot, at Penetan- 
guishine, whither we conveyed our booty, one of the 
most delicious duck I ever tasted, and not unworthy to 
be named alongside of the royal Canvas-back himself. 
It was not, in the least degree, fishy or sedgy ; but rich, 
succulent, delicate, and melting in the mouth, like the 
flesh of the fattest duck that ever fed in the Gunpowder 
or the Potomac—the cause of which undoubtedly is 
this, that in both localities, the food of the fowl is the 
same, the seeds of the wild-rice, ztzania panicula effusd, 
the wild-celery, valisneria Americana, and the eel-grass, 
xostera marina ; all which, or varieties of them, are 
universally found in all the flats and mud-lakes of that 
region. 
On our return to convenient quarters, I immediately 
set myself to work to dissect a sufticient number of these 
fine fowl to satisfy myself as to the distinctions of the 
sexes as to plumage and coloring; to take careful meas- 
urements, and draw up accurate descriptions; besides 
making a close and correct drawing of the bird from 
nature. From all that I have since been enabled to 
collect, I am well satisfied that this ¢s a new and unde- 
scribed sea-duck from the arctic regions. I have never- 
found any one, though I have consulted many sportsmen 
and naturalists, who is acquainted with the bird south- 
east of the straits of Mackinaw. At Detroit it is 
unknown, as also on the Canada shores, and that to 
