Sea and Bay Ducks 



grows most abundantly, gunners shoot thousands on thousands 

 to supply the demand. 



A great troop of redheads flying in a close body along the 

 coast in autumn makes a roar like thunder, as their long, strong 

 wings beat the air in unison. Alighting on the waters above 

 their feeding ground, they are at first restless, alert, constantly 

 wheeling about in the air to reconnoitre, before settling down to 

 enjoy themselves with an easy mind. If they have been decoyed 

 to the duck shores at daybreak by gunners screened behind 

 blinds, or tolled within range, a volley welcomes them ; the sur- 

 vivors of the flock quickly outrace sight itself; the wounded es- 

 cape by diving; and well-trained dogs, plunging through the icy 

 water, bring in to shore the tax that has been levied on the 

 "bunch." Sink boats and reflectors, employed by market shoot- 

 ers who turn sport to slaughter, must soon be suppressed if 

 there is to be any sport left — a doubtful possibility at the present 

 rate of decrease. 



In the sloughs and shallow waters of the interior — too shallow 

 for diving — the redheads dabble about like any pond ducks, and 

 tip up one extremity while the other probes the muddy bottom 

 for food. It is in such marshy waters at the north that they 

 build a nest among the rank herbage close to shore. Here it 

 sometimes rests on the water, or else very close beside it; for 

 these ducks are poor walkers, and the mother chooses to glide off 

 the large nestful of buff eggs directly into her natural element. 

 As usual, the drake keeps at a distance when there is any work 

 to be done. Their call note is a sort of hiss, suggesting their 

 ancestors, the reptiles, on the one hand, and their immediate kin, 

 the geese, on the other. 



Canvasback 



(Aythyra vallisneria.) 



Called also: WHITE BACK ; BULL-NECK 



Length — 21 inches ; generally a little larger than the redhead. 



Male — Head and neck dark reddish brown, almost black on 

 crown and chin, y^ broad band of black encircles breast atjd 

 upper back; rest of the back and generally wing coverts sil- 

 very gray, .almost white, the plumage being white, broken Up 

 witii fine wavy black lines often broken into dots across 



116 



