CANVASBACK (AYTIIYA VALLI.SNERIA) 
GAME BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC 
President of the California Game and Fish. Protective Association 
Illustrated with Photographs from Life by the Author 
FOURTH PAPER— THE BAY AND SEA DUCKS 
T N these papers I have divided the dueks 
of the Pacific Coast into fresh and salt 
water varieties, not that tliere is any line 
of demarcation in the hunting of the two kinds, 
but because an article on the ducks of this 
region would be too long for one issue. Then, 
too, this is a natural division, for the ornithol- 
ogist has divided them into two subfamilies 
distinct from each other. On our shooting 
grounds, however, whether the blind is on the 
saltwater marsh or the freshwater pond, both 
kinds are sure to fall to the gun in almost 
equal numbers. Of the more common of the 
freshwater varieties the gadwall and the 
mallard are seen the least on the salt marshes 
and the tide overflows, yet even Ihese are (piite 
often met with in these places. So it is with the 
saltwater species. All except the scoters are 
frefjuenters of the mountain lakes, freshwater 
ponds and overflows. The red-head, both 
species of the scaups, the canvasback and the 
ruddy are commoidy found on the fresh 
waters. The ring-neck, and, in fact, the red- 
head are much more common on these waters 
than on the salt or brackish marshes. 
With the exception, thei’efore, that certain 
species always predominate at a given place 
at certain times of the season, the sportsman’s 
aim brings down a well-assorted bag, let him 
shoot where he niay, on marsh, pond or 
overflow, from Washington to Mexico. 
Before the sportsmen of the Coast began 
to realize the danger of over-slaughter to the 
supj)ly of the future and secured the enact- 
nient of laws limiting the bag, the number 
of ducks that might be killed in a <lay’s shoot 
on our hunting grounds was limited only by 
one’s power of endurance. Bc-tter judgment 
now jirevails, however, and a sense of moder- 
ation has taken the place of the erstwhile 
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