602 



THE CANVAS-BACK. 



that our southern neighbors may have an abundant supply in winter, and 

 idle to expect the hunters of the Pamlico to refrain from shooting Redheads 

 in Januarj' that we may have enough and to spare in March. The only real 

 remedy lies in national legislation, which shall take account o^ the entire life 

 of a given species, and accord it protection at the times and places of greatest 

 danger, irrespective of local and unenlightened opinion. 



The Redhead occurs with us in small flocks, and these sometimes visit 

 the smaller lakes and ponds. Their food consists largely of vegetable matter 



Taken at the Licking Reservoir. 



WHERE THE REDHEAD COURTS DESTRUCTION. 



Photo by the Author. 



which they obtain by diving. Like their better known relatives the Canvas- 

 backs, they eat the eel grass {Vallisneria spiralis L), commonly called wild 

 celei-y ; and their flesh cannot then nor at any other time be distinguished from 

 that of the latter birds. 



This duck is unusually prolific, and Rev. Herbert K. Job, who has done 

 such excellent work with the waterfowl, once found in a Dakota slough, a set 

 of twenty-two eggs, — all, as he believed, the product of one bird. 



No. 294. 



CANVAS-BACK. 



A. O. U. No. 147. Aythya vallisneria (Wils.). 



Description. — Adult male : Similar to preceding species, but larger, head 

 larger, bill longer, and no evident angle between bill and forehead; head and 



