CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 8. NATATORES. 
325 
to take advantage of their distress. A Mr. Hill, who lives near James River, at a place called 
Herring Creek, informs me that, one severe winter, he and another person broke a hole in the ice, 
about twenty by forty feet, immediately over a shoal of grass, and took their stand on the shore 
in a hut of brush, each having three guns well loaded with large shot. The ducks, which 
were flying up and down the river in great extremity, soon crowded to this place, so that the 
whole open space was not only covered with them, but vast numbers stood on the ice around it. 
They had three rounds, firing both at once, and picked up eighty-eight Canvas-Backs, and 
might have collected more, had they been able to get to the extremity of the ice after the 
wounded ones. 
"The Canvas-Back, in the rich, juicy tenderness of its flesh, and its delicacy of flavor, stands 
unrivaled by the whole of its tribe, in this or perhaps any other quarter of the world. Those 
killed in the waters of the Chesapeake are generally esteemed superior to all others, doubtless 
from the great abundance of their favorite food which these produce. At our public dinners, 
hotels, and particular entertainments, the Canvas-Backs are universal favorites. They not 
only grace but dignif}^ the table, and their very name conveys to the imagination of the eager 
epicure the most comfortable and exhilarating ideas. Hence, on such occasions, it has not been 
uncommon to pay from one to three dollars a pair for these ducks ; and, indeed, at such times, 
if they can, they must be had, whatever may he the price. 
" The Canvas-Back will feed readily on grain, especially wheat, and may be decoyed to par- 
ticular places by baiting them with that grain for several successive days. Some few years since 
a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in the autumn, 
and went to pieces. The wheat floated out in vast quantities, and the whole surface of the bay 
was in a few days covered Avith ducks of a kind altogether unknown to the people of that quarter. 
The gunners of the neighborhood collected in boats, in every direction, shooting them ; and so suc- 
cessful were they, that, as Mr. Beasley informs me, two hundred and forty were killed in one day." 
The Tufted Duck, F. cris- 
fata, is 17 inches long; widely 
distributed in Europe and Asia. 
The Long-tailed Duck or 
Old-wife, F. glacialis, length 
seventeen inches, not including 
the long tail-feathers ; is com- 
mon in Eiu'ope and North Amer- 
ica. In the Southern States it 
is called South Southerly/, on ac- 
count of its cry. 
The Golden-Eye, F. clangula^ 
Bucejohala Americana of Baird 
— called Rattle-Wings by the 
boat-shooters in Eno-land — is 
nineteen inches long; builds in 
hollow trees near the water, 
twelve to twenty feet from the 
them one by one under her bill, 
pressed to her neck, to the water. This species belongs to both Europe and America. 
Barrow's Golden-Eye, Bucephala Islandica, is found in Iceland and on the St. Law- 
rence. 
The Harlequin Duck, F. histrionica^ is a very beautiful but small species, fourteen inches 
long; fond of the eddying waters of cascades ; common in North America; rare in Europe. 
The Pied Duck, F. Labradora, eighteen inches long, is common on the northeast coast of 
North America. It is the Camptoloimus Lahradorius of Gray ; called SktmJc-Head and Sand- 
Shoal DucJc on the coast of New Jersey. 
The Buffle-Head, F, albeola, is thirteen inches long ; builds in hollows of trees; common in the 
THE LONG-TAILED DUCK. 
ground. Soon after the young are hatched, the female carries 
