108 
CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 
AJVAS VJILLISJVERM. 
[Plate LXX.— Fig. 5, Male.'] 
Buil^neck Duck., Lawson’s Carolina, p. 150 . — Peale’s Museum, No* 2B\6 ; female, 2817 . 
THIS celebrated American species, as far as can be judged 
from the best figures and deseriptions of foreign birds, is altoge- 
ther unknown in Europe. It approaches nearest to the Pochard 
of England, Jlnas ftrina^ but differs from that bird in being supe- 
rior in size and weight, in the greater magnitude of its bill, and 
tlie general whiteness of its plumage. A short comparison of the 
two will elucidate this point. The Canvass-back measures two 
feet in length, by three feet in extent, and when in the best order 
weighs three pounds and upwards. The Pochard, according to 
Latham and Bewick, measures nineteen inches in length, and 
thirty in extent, and weighs one pound twelve or thirteen ounces. 
The latter writer says of the Pochard, “ the plumage above and 
below is wholly covered with prettily freckled slender dusky 
threads disposed transversely in close set zigzag lines, on a pale 
ground, more or less shaded off with ash;” a description much 
more applicable to the bird figured beside it, the Red-head^ and 
which very probably is the species meant. In the figure of the 
Pochard given by Mr. Bewick, who is generally coi rect, the bill 
agrees very well with that of our Red-head ; but is scai-cely half 
the size and thickness of that of the Canvass-back ; and the figure 
in the Planches Enluminees corresponds in that respect with Be- 
wick’s. In short, either these writers are egregiously erroneous 
in their figures and descriptions, or the present duck was altogether 
unknown to them. Considering the latter supposition the more 
