266 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF . 



pies a conspicuous place in the esteem of the connoisseur of palatal delicacies, 

 many a one has greater claim to such honor. In fact, except under certain unusual 

 circumstances, the flesh of this greatly over-estimated bird is decidedly inferior to 

 not a few others of its kin, whose lack of notoriety has caused them to be less 

 eagerly sought, and has spared them from wholesale destruction. But however 

 unwarrantably esteemed the canvasback may be, it is nevertheless still invested 

 with more than ordinary attractiveness to the sportsman and the naturalist. 



It is strictly a North American species, ranging at large over the continent, from 

 the shores of the Arctic to Southern Mexico and Guatemala, and along the coasts of 

 both the great oceans, passing its summer sojourn and bearing the burden of its 

 household cares in the solitudes of the great interior, from the States of the North- 

 west to the valley of the Yukon. In the extreme southern part of its range the 

 canvasback is never numerous, and along the coast of the North Atlantic it is of rare 

 occurrence, while in New York State it is, generally speaking, far from common. 

 Although in many parts of the Middle and far Western States it can be counted as 

 a species of frequent appearance, yet there is probably no region that can justly lay 

 claim to being a greater winter rendezvous than Chesapeake Bay and its tributary 

 streams. When the months of October and November bring from out the northern 

 wildernesses the hordes of migrant ducks and other wild fowl, the canvasbacks 

 appear, and in countless thousands cover the waters of river-mouths, bays and estu- 

 aries along the Chesapeake. Such at least was the spectacle in early days, before 

 the insatiable appetite of the gourmand and the avarice of the pothunter, through 

 decades of persistent persecution, had so greatly thinned their ranks. 



The great attraction this place holds for the canvasback is the extensive growth 

 of a certain kind of water grass, called variously "tape grass," "wild celery," and, 

 from serving for food to wild fowl, also " duck grass." This plant, the Vallisneria 

 spiralis of botanists, grows in the shallow fresh and brackish water of many of the 

 streams and bays along the Atlantic coast, but nowhere in greater profusion than 

 about Chesapeake Bay. This plant seems to be the favorite food of the canvasback, 

 and wherever accessible is eagerly sought. It grows in comparatively shallow water, 

 but as its root is the morsel held in esteem, it must be obtained by diving. So for- 

 cibly, indeed, did this peculiar predilection for this particular food strike the original 

 describer of the canvasback that he commemorated the fact by taking part of the 

 scientific name of the plant for the duck's specific name. It is this diet that imparts 

 to the flesh of the canvasback the requisite delicacy of flavor ; and when, after 

 having lived upon this for some weeks, the bird becomes, in the late fall, most fit for 

 the table, it sometimes is so fat that in falling upon the water it has been known to 



