336 
SWIMMERS. 
strikingly beautiful appearance, and the bird is familiar only in the 
duller colors, worn at all seasons by the young male and female ; 
and in this inconspicuous dress these birds are enabled to avoid 
observation by hiding in the rank herbage so common at their 
resorts, and thus have gained a reputation for being rare, while 
they are fairly common. They are known to be common by the 
gunners of Chesapeake Bay, who take them to market, — their 
food being chiefly marine plants, which they obtain by diving: 
their flesh is tender, and of pleasant flavor. 
CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 
Aythya vallisneria. 
Char. Mantle and sides silvery wliite, daintily marked with waved 
lines of dusky ; head and neck brownish red ; lower neck and breast and 
rump brownish black ; wings and tail gray ; under parts white ; bill black ■ 
legs leaden gray. In the female the head, neck, and breast are dull 
brown ; upper parts grayish brown ; belly white. Length about 12 inches 
Nest. In marshy margin of stream or lake, concealed amid rank her- 
bage, - made usually of grass and weed stems and lined with feathers 
Eggs. 6-10 ; grayish olive, — sometimes tinged with drab; 2.40 X 175. 
The Canvas-back, so well known as a delicacy of the table, 
is a species peculiar to the continent of America. It breedsj 
according to Richardson, in all parts of the remote fur coun- 
tries, from the 50th parallel to their most northern limits, and 
at this period associates much on the water with the ordinary 
tribe of Ducks. After the close of the period of reproduction, 
accumulating in flocks, and driven to the open waters of the 
South for their favorite means of subsistence, these birds arrive 
about the middle of October seawards on the coast of the 
United States. A few at this time visit the Hudson and the 
Delaware, but the great body of emigrants take up their quar- 
ters in the Bay of Chesapeake and in the numerous estuaries 
and principal rivers which empty into it, particularly the Sus- 
quehanna, the Patapsco, Potomac, and James rivers. They 
also frequent the sounds and bays of North Carolina, and are 
abundant in the river Neuse, in the vicinity of Newbern, and 
probably in most of the other Southern waters to the coast of 
