346 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
Canadensis ; the brant, anas bernicla ; the scaup or broad- 
bill, of two kinds, greater and smaller, anas marila; the 
dusky duck, anas obscura ; the red-head, fuligula ferina ; 
occasionally the canvas-back, fuligula valisneria, which 
is but a third-rate fowl where it cannot obtain the wild 
celery, and inferior to both the varieties last mentioned ; 
and the ring-necked duck, fuligula rufitorques. In 
addition to these, the coarse and fishy sea-ducks, known as 
coots, namely, the scoter, the velvet-duck, and the surf- 
duck, and sometimes the harlequin-duck, the pied-duck, 
the ring-duck, and even the eider-duck, are visitants to our 
bays and beaches. Their flesh is, however, worthless, and 
unless for specimens, or, in the case of the last named, for 
its down, they are literally not worth the powder. The 
mergansers, commonly known as shelldrakes, fall under the 
same category, as do also the south-southerlies, which, 
however, for the most part, take far too good care of them- 
selves to venture near enough to the stools to tempt the 
gunner’s forbearance. 
The little dippers, or buffet-headed ducks, are held in. 
.small estimation from their inferior size, and on salt water 
they are neither so fat nor so succulent as when killed on 
inland ponds and streams, where they are highly and 
deservedly esteemed; and the same is the case with the 
blue-winged teal, when it is found on the bays, as it is 
at some seasons. 
The winter is the best season for the prosecution of 
this sport, and the severer the frost, and the rougher the 
winds and waters, the better the chance of success. It is, 
therefore, no holiday work, no light matter to be under- 
