108 



CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 



They were all Canvas-backs^ at that time on their way from the 

 north, when this floating feast attracted their attention, and for a 

 while arrested them in their course. A pair of these very ducks 

 I myself bought in Philadelphia market at the time, from an Egg 

 Harbour gunner, and never met with their superior either in weight 

 or excellence of flesh. When it was known among those people 

 the loss they had sustained in selling for twenty five cents what 

 would have brought them from a dollar to a dollar and a half per 

 pair, universal surprise and regret were naturally enough excited. 



The Canvas-back is two feet long, and three feet in extent, 

 and when in good order weighs three pounds ; the bill is large, 

 rising high in the head, three inches in length, and one inch and 

 three eighths thick at the base, of a glossy black; eye very small, 

 irides dark red; cheeks and fore part of the head blackish brown; 

 rest of the head and greater part of the neck bright glossy reddish 

 chesnut, ending in a broad space of black that covers the upper 

 part of the breast, and spreads round to the back ; back, scapu- 

 lars, and tertials white, faintly marked with an infinite number of 

 transverse waving lines or points as if done with a pencil ; whole 

 lower parts of the breast, also the belly, white, slightly pencilled 

 in the same manner, scarcely perceptible on the breast, pretty 

 thick towards the vent; wing coverts grey with numerous specks 

 of blackish; primaries and secondaries pale slate, two or three of 

 the latter of which nearest the body are finely edged with deep 

 velvetty black, the former dusky at the tips; tail very short, 

 pointed, consisting of fourteen feathers of a hoary brown ; vent 

 and tail coverts black ; lining of the wing white ; legs and feet 

 very pale ash, the latter three inches in width, a circumstance 

 which partly accounts for its great powers of swimming. 



The female is somewhat less than the male, and weighs two 

 pounds and three quarters ; the crown is blackish brown, cheeks 

 and throat of a pale drab ; neck dull brown ; breast as far as the 

 black extends on the male, dull brown skirted in places with pale 



