GAME 



BIRDS 



O F 



AMERICA 



DUCKS SWIMMING ACROSS A BAY 



wheat floated out in quantities, and soon the bay was "covered" with a 

 new kind of duck unknown to the local gunners. They had great sport 

 for three weeks, shooting canvasbacks, and sold them for twenty-five 

 cents a pair; but did not discover the particular excellence of their flesh. 

 They finally learned what they were and that they might have disposed 

 of them for four times the sum they had received. 



Redheads, which feed to a great extent on wild celery, often appear 

 on the table masquerading as canvasbacks. In one case, at least, the 

 gunner sold to some innocent clerks a lot of fish-eating sheldrakes or mer- 

 gansers under the name of canvasbacks. I am told that the dishes that 

 resulted were about as palatable as a bundle of old stewed kerosene lamp- 

 wicks. 



No longer ago than 1850 canvasbacks hovered in interminable flocks 

 about Chesapeake Bay. Over ten thousand people were accustomed to 

 shoot there. These ducks were then plentiful in all first class restaurants 

 and hotels of the East. The glories of Chesapeake Bay as a shooting 

 ground have largely departed, and canvasback ducks are now rarely seen 

 on tables where they formerly appeared often; but there is still a stock of 

 breeding birds left, and with adequate protection it will be long before 

 we see the last of the species. So far as I know, no one has as yet suc- 

 ceeded in breeding this bird in captivity. Therefore we cannot depend 

 on artificial propagation; but must protect the stock of wild birds. 



SUPPLEMENTARY READING— Birds of America, by John James Audubon; 

 Game Birds of North America, Wild Fowl of North America, and North American 

 Shore Birds, by Daniel Giraud Elliott; Feathered Game of the Northeast, by Walter 

 H. Rich; American Game Bird Shooting, by George Bird Grinnell. 



