DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS: CANVASBACK 
135 
and central Oregon; winters from southern British Columbia, northern Montana* 
northern Colorado, southern Illinois, eastward to Massachusetts and south to Florida, 
Gulf coast, and central Mexico. 
State Records. —The scarcity of records of the Canvasback in New Mexico 
from the early days to the present time indicates that it is a comparatively rare 
species in the State. A single bird was taken March 26,1856, in the extreme south¬ 
eastern part of New Mexico on Delaware Creek (Pope). [On Lake Burford May 
23-June 19, 1918, three pairs were apparently nesting (Wetmore). It is fairly 
abundant at Silver City both spring and fall and one was taken, September 10, 1919 
(Kellogg)]; Henry gave it as tolerably common in winter on the Rio Grande; and 
one was noted at Albuquerque January 29, 1900 (Birtwell). On the Carlsbad 
Bird Reserve a few were noted in February, 1914 (Wilder); and reported in January, 
1915; (300-400 noted, December, 1916 (Willett). On the Rio Grande near Albu¬ 
querque a few are seen in late November (Leopold, 1919). Some are seen in Colfax 
County every year although they are not so numerous as formerly. Large flocks 
were reported by hunters and Mr. Grubb at Lake Burford before the name of the 
lake was changed (Charles Springer, 1925)].—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In tules or flags, over water, on muskrat houses, and sometimes on dry 
ground, a bulky mass of dead tules or grasses, lined with gray down. Eggs: Usually 
7 to 9 (to which those of the Ruddy Duck or Redhead are often added as is the case 
with other slough-nesting ducks), grayish olive or greenish drab, darker than those 
of most ducks. 
Food. —Mainly the seeds, tubers, and stems of water plants, as wild celery, 
wild rice, pondweed, eel grass, delta duck potato, arrow head, and rushes, with 
some insects, mollusks, and crustaceans. 
General Habits. —The aristocratic looking Canvasback, with his 
long high bill slanting down from the top of his head and his white 
blanket shining, is one of the famous ducks of the northern country that 
we welcome in New Mexico. 
Although no nests have yet been found in the State and it is far 
south of the normal breeding range, three pairs have been seen on Lake 
Burford in the breeding season apparently settled for the summer, and 
it would be well to look carefully for nests. The males have, as Mr. 
Eaton describes it, “a peeping or growling note/’ while the females have 
a loud quack and when startled, “a screaming curr-row.” 
In the winter these handsome ducks gather in large numbers far 
enough south for open water, though some have been known to stay on 
large lakes when only air holes were left in the ice and they were becom¬ 
ing greatly emaciated, evidently from lack of food. 
Doctor Chapman says that the famous Canvasback, “pursued for 
the market and as game, has decreased alarmingly, but in recent years, 
thanks to more stringent and better enforced laws, and particularly 
to the abolition of spring shooting, its numbers appear to be increasing’’ 
(Handbook). 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., Auk, XIX, 10-12, 1902 (nesting); 
U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 126, 189-202, 1923.— Job, H. K., Outing, 515-525, February, 
1914; Bull. 3, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc. (propagation of waterfowl).— Rockwell, 
R. B., Condor, XIII, 192, 194, 1911. 
