42 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
Female .—Iris plain yellow ; head and neck grayish-brown ; chin and upper part 
of throat very light; upper parts brownish ; wings about same as in male. Length 
about 22 inches ; extent about 32 inches. 
Habitat .—North America; breeding from California and Maine northward. 
Spring- and fall migrant, more numerous about Erie bay and the 
Susquehanna river than in other sections of the state; occasional winter 
visitant. Some few years ago while hunting along the Brandywine 
creek, near West Chester, Pa., I suddenly came upon a flock of thirteen 
Red heads busily engaged in feeding. As they arose from the water I 
succeeded in killing two of them. Assisted by my honored friend, 
Benjamin M. Everhart, I made an examination of the stomachs of these 
two birds and found that both fed exclusively on “ wild celery,” * a 
somewhat common, though not abundant aquatic plant in this locality. 
The food of this species varies according to locality and circumstances. 
Wilson says the Red-head is a common associate of the Canvas-back, 
frequenting the same places and feeding on the stems of the wild celery. 
Audubon, writing of the Red-heads, states: “I have found their stom¬ 
achs crammed with young tadpoles and small water-lizards, as well as 
blades of the grasses growing around the bank. Nay, on several occa¬ 
sions, I have found pretty large acorns and beech-nuts in their throats, 
as well as snails, entire or broken, and fragments of the shells of various 
small unios, together with much gravel.” 
I have examined the stomach contents of twenty-one Red-lieads, both 
sexes, which have been killed during the shooting season at Havre-de- 
Grace, Maryland, and found only gravel and vegetable matter, the latter 
consisting mainly of the so-called “ wild celery ” (Vallisneria spiralis). 
Aythya vallisneria (Wils.). 
Canvas-back. 
Description. 
Bill high at base, larger than head, rather narrow and somewhat tapering. 
Male .—Bill blackish ; legs dark-gray ; iris red ; head and upper part of neck dark 
reddish-brown ; feathers on top of head and about bill blackish ; otherwise quite 
* ‘ * This plant, like many others, has a variety of local names. Some of the most common which I 
now call to mind are tape grass, from the tape-like appearance of the long leaves ; channel-weed, as it 
frequently grows in channels where the water hows, not swiftly; eel-grass, this name arises, it is said 
by Dr. Darlington (Flora Cestrica), ‘ from the habit which eels have of hiding under the leaves which 
are usually procumbently floating under the water's surface.* The appellation ‘wild celery’—a local 
term applied, I think, chiefly by gunners and watermen at Havre-de-Grace and vicinity—is, I consider, 
like many vulgar synonyms, a misnomer, as this plant is in no particular related to celery which by 
botanists is known as Apium, ‘ Wild celery, ’ or as it is more generally known in this vicinity (Chester 
county, Pa.), as ‘eel-grass,’ is found in the Brandywine creek growing in slow running water. 
The scientific name of the plant is Vallisneria spiralis (Linn.), the generic name being given in honor 
of Antonio Vallisneri, an Italian botanist; the specific spiralis is applied in consequence of the fact 
that the fertile stalk in its development assumes a spiral form. It is a remarkable dioecious, herbaceous 
plant on account of its mode of fertilization. It grows entirely underwater, has long, radical grass¬ 
like leaves, from one to three feet long and from one-fourth to three-fourths inch wide The female 
flowers float on the surface at the end of long thread-like spiral scapes, which curiously contract and 
lengthen with the rise and fall of the water. The male flowers have very short stems or scapes, from 
which the flowers break off and rise to the surface, to fertilize with their pollen the attached floating 
female flowers. ”— B. M. Everhart's Botanical Publications, November, 1886. 
