334 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
In the Chesapeake Bay shooting, in which I include, of 
course, all the rivers which debouch into that fine sheet of 
water, all more or less frequented in winter by innumer- 
able legions of wild fowl, the birds most commonly met 
with and most eagerly pursued, are the wild swan, Cycnus 
Americanus—a species peculiar to the American Conti- 
nent; the canvas-back duck, fuligula valisneria, so named 
from the wild celery, which is its favorite food, whence it 
derives its delicious flavor ; the red-head, fuligula ferina, 
next in excellence to the canvas-back, and little inferior to 
it when killed in the region of wild rice and wild celery; 
the American widgeon or bald-pate, anas Americana, and 
the scaup, broad-bill, blue-bill, or black-head, as it is 
variously denominated in various localities, the latter 
being its Chesapeake alias, anas Marila; these being 
considered the choicest, and those which improve most by 
the food of that regioa. 
These birds, with the ordinary wild goose, anas Cana- 
densis, do not generally appear in these waters until the 
middle of November, when the cold has already been 
severe at the north, and ice is beginning to make even in 
those warmer regions. 
The smaller ducks, such as the buffel-headed duck, 
anas albeola, the ruddy duck, anas rubida, and the long- 
tailed duck or south-southerly, anas glacialis, make their 
appearance somewhat earlier in the season; but they are 
little regarded, and seldom pursued by sportsmen. 
Of the larger ducks, all of which feed on the same 
grasses, and acquire so nearly the same flavor that they are 
not easily distinguishable even by epicures, the canvas- 
