364 
APPENDIX.-F. 
less on the table, I was beyond measure surprised at finding 
them, when reeking from the gridiron, not only as fat and as 
juicy, but as delicate, as tender, as lusciously melting in the 
mouth, as any Gunpowder River Canvas I ever had the fortune 
to taste. 
In this respect, however, it is worthy of remark, that all the 
Ducks, even the indifferent Scaup or Broadbill of those waters, 
are superior, both in fatness and flavor, to any 1 have elsewhere 
eaten. The cause of this is, doubtless, that there are shallow 
lakes and shoals in the great lakes, at the river mouths, contain¬ 
ing millions and millions of acres of the wild rice and wild celery, 
Zizania and Valisneria , to which the wild fowl of the Chesapeake 
owe their surpassing excellence. 
The flight of this Duck is peculiar, the flights wheeling con¬ 
stantly and swooping, so as to show their dark under wings and 
snow-white secondaries alternately, much as some of the plovers 
and tattlers do on our shores. I never heard them utter any 
quack or cry, nor did I see them dive, even when wounded, and 
hunted by a spaniel in the water. 
The Chippewas and Potawattomies call them indiscriminately 
Canard Frangais, and Canard d’Hiver—the French or Winter 
Duck ; and one who spoke English called him the Big Widgeon 
Duck. Having prolonged my route to the Sault St. Marie, along 
the north side of Lake Huron, I found that every one knew the 
bird, but no one had a name for him. Returning by the south¬ 
ern or American shore, I had many opportunities of showing my 
description and drawings to intelligent sportsmen of Detroit, 
Mackinaw, and Buffalo, but to all the bird was as new as he is to 
me. The same thing occurred during my stay at Amherstburgh, 
where several officers of H. M. R. Canadians are good sportsmen 
and good naturalists. And I may add that, since my return to 
this part of the country, I have omitted no opportunity of com¬ 
paring it with the Anatidae, of the best collections I could find, or 
of consulting the naturalists with whom I have the honor to be 
acquainted—some of them men of the first science ; but in the 
former I have found none similar to mine; and of the latter, 
though several have doubted its being a new Duck or nonde- 
