WILD FOWL. 
77 
in length; the root is white, and has some resemblance to small 
celery. This grass is in many places so thick that a boat can 
with difficulty be rowed through it, it so impedes the oars. The 
shores are lined with large quantities of it, torn up by the Ducks, 
and drifted up by the winds, lying like hay in winrows. Where¬ 
ver this plant grows in abundance, the C anvass-backs may be 
expected either to pay it occasional visits, or to make their regu¬ 
lar residence during the winter. It occurs in some parts of the 
Hudson, in the Delaware, near Gloucester, a few miles below 
Philadelphia, and in most of the rivers that fall into the Chesa¬ 
peake, to each of which particular places the Ducks resort, while 
in waters unfavored with this nutritive plant, they are altogether 
unknown. On the first arrival of these birds in the Susquehanna, 
near Havre-de-Grace, they are generally lean, but such is 
the abund ance of their favorite food, that towards the beginning 
of November, they are in pretty good order. They are excel¬ 
lent divers, and swim with great speed and agility. They some¬ 
times assemble in such multitudes as to cover several acres of 
the river, and when they rise suddenly, produce a noise resem¬ 
bling thunder. They float about these shoals, diving and tear¬ 
ing up the grass by the roots, which is the only part they eat. 
They are extremely shy, and can rarely be approached unless 
by stratagem. When wounded in the wing, they dive to such 
prodigious distances, and with such rapidity, continuing it so 
perseveringly, and with such cunning, and active vigor, as al¬ 
most always to render the pursuit hopeless. From the great de¬ 
mand of these Ducks, and the high price they uniformly bring 
in market, various modes are practised to get within gun-shot 
of them. The most successful way is said to be decoying them 
to the shore by means of a dog, while the gunner lies closely 
concealed in a proper situation. The dogs, if properly trained, 
play backways and forwards along the margin of the water, 
and the Ducks observing his manoeuvres, enticed perhaps by cu¬ 
riosity, gradually approach the shore, until they are sometimes 
within twenty or thirty yards of the spot where the gunner lies 
concealed, from which he rakes them, first on the water and then 
