224 
ANAS VALISINERIA. 
if they can, they must be had, -whatever may be th« 
price. 
Tile canvass-back will feed readily on fxrain, especial 
wheat, and may be decoyed to particular places by baiti"!^ 
them with that yrain for several successive days. 
few years since a vessel loaded with wheat was wreck*'’ 
near the entrance of Great Harbour, in the autun”’’ 
and went to jiieces. The wheat floated out in vi'^ 
quantities, and the n hole surface of the bay was i** * 
few days covered with ducks of a kind altogeth*’ 
unknown to the Jieople of that quarter. The guuH*’^ , 
of the neighbourhood collected in boats, in cvcb'’ | 
direction, sliooting them ; and so su('ces.sful were thc.b ^ 
that, as Mr Beasley informs me, tn o hundred and 
were killed in one day, and sold among the neighbou*^’ 
at twelve and a half cents a-jiiece, n ithont the featbef”^ 
The wounded ones n cre generally abandoned, as be>"f 
too difficult to be come up with. They continued ab"" 
for three weeks, and during the greater part of t’’". 
time a continual cannonading was heard from ev**- 
quarter. The gunners called them sea ducks. Tl"'-’ 
were all cauvass-backs, at that time on their wav 
the north, when this floating feast attracted’ th*'' 
attention, and for a while arrested them in tlieir cour’®^ 
A pair of these very ducks I myself bought iu I’b'*’'’ | 
del])hia market at the time, from an Egg Harbel'^ ' 
gunner, and never met viith their superior either 
weight or excellence of flesh. When it n as kiie",' 
among those peo|)le the loss they bad sustained 
selling for twenty-live cents what would have broUrl' 
them from a dollar to a dollar and a half per p^'jl 
universal surprise and regret were naturally eno'’:! 
e.xcit.ed. 
The canvass-back is two feel long, and three 
extent, and, when in good order, weighs three pound*' 
the bill is large, rising high in the head, three inchr*', 
length, and one inch and three-eighlhs thick at <”1, 
base, of a glossy black ; eye, very small ; irides, d"*^ , 
red ; cheeks and fore part of the head, blackish bro"’’’ J | 
fest of the head and greater part of the neck, bn? 
