Sea and Bay Ducks 



of the redhead. The longer, narrower head of the former slants 

 gradually backward from the bill, while that of the latter rises 

 more abruptly, giving the duck a full, round forehead. The 

 plumage on the head and neck of the redhead is decidedly rufous, 

 without any black, whereas the canvasback is rufo-as brown on 

 those parts, except on the chin and crown, which are blackish. 

 The white lines on the almost white back of the canvasback are 

 wider than those of the redhead, whose black and white waves 

 are of equal width, and look silvery. Usually canvasbacks are 

 larger, heavier birds, but not always. Finally, the females may 

 be distinguished by the difference in their backs, the canvas- 

 back duck having wavy white lines across a grayish brown 

 ground, while the redhead is dull mottled brown and buff 

 above. Unscrupulous dealers have a trick of pulling out the tell- 

 tale feathers, however, which leaves the housekeeper only the 

 shape of the duck's head and bill to guide her choice and protect 

 her purse. As both these species frequent the same bodies of 

 water, constant opportunities for comparisons are offered to that 

 very small minority, alas, who are. more interested in the study 

 of the living duck than in the flavor of one roasted. 



When the ice begins to form at the far north, where the red- 

 heads have spent the summer, great flocks come down to us, 

 eschewing New England with unaccountable perversity, and 

 taking up a temporary residence in the smaller lakes that drain 

 into the Great Lakes and the larger western rivers, before de- 

 scending to the Chesapeake shores — the duck's paradise — and 

 the lagoons of our southern states, where they pass the winter. 

 It must not be for a moment supposed that because this group of 

 birds is called sea ^nd bay ducks they are found exclusively 

 around salt water. On the contrary, many are more abundant in 

 the interior than along the coast. The classification has reference to 

 the lobe, or web, of these birds' feet, which are most fully equipped 

 for swimming and diving. The redhead and all its immediate 

 kin plunge through deep water. Those that feed in the great 

 beds of wild celery, or vallisneria, gain a peculiar sweetness and 

 delicacy of flesh. In regions where this eel-grass does not grow 

 — as in California, for example — and the redhead must live upon 

 fish, lizards, tadpoles, and the coarser aquatic vegetables, it 

 enjoys no patronage whatever from epicures; whereas in the 

 Mississippi Valley and the Chesapeake, where this "celery" 



