GAME 



BIRDS 



O F 



AMERICA 



at home. They swim about the sedge and water plants, catching insects, 

 and when danger threatens keep concealed and sheltered by the herbage. 

 They are often in peril, not only from hawks, owls, eagles, gulls, and 

 herons, foxes, minks, and dogs, but they are attacked on all sides in their 

 own element. Great frogs and fish spring to seize them with open mouths. 

 Turtles prey upon them, and in the South alligators devour many. 

 When a dog scents the little family in shoal waters and rushes in, the 

 mother throws herself in his way and flutters off as if sorely wounded. 

 While he chases her eagerly, his open mouth close to her tail, the little 

 ones dive and swim away, more under water than above it, and, leaving 

 the slough, crawl through the grass to the next refuge, hiding there safely 

 until all danger is passed. Inherited experience has taught them the 



way of life, that 

 their species may be 

 perpetuated. 



THE CANVAS- 

 BACK 



Long live the 

 canvasback! His 

 fame has gone far- 

 ther, perhaps, than 

 that of any other 

 American game 

 bird. Some epicures 

 rank him above the 

 little-neck, the lob- 

 ster, or the terrapin, 

 and he is considered 

 a greater luxury 

 than quail on toast. 

 Yet the canvas- 

 back, when deprived 

 of its favorite food, 

 the wild celery, is 

 hardly superior to 

 the despised mud- 

 hen. Wilson tells 

 us that many years 

 ago a vessel loaded 

 with wheat was 

 BLACK DUCKS wrcckcd near Great 



These birds were purposely flushed and taken onlhe first upward spring. Egg Harbor. The 



BLACK DUCKS 



The birds are gathering to feed. 



