THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK. 
145 
rivers produce. At our public dinners, hotels, and parti- 
cular entertainments, the Canvass-Backs are universal 
favourites. They not only grace but dignify the table, and 
their very name conveys to the imagination of the eager 
epicure the most comfortable and exhilarating ideas. Hence, 
on such occasions, it has not been uncommon to pay from 
one to three dollars a pair for these Ducks ; and, indeed, at 
such times, if they can, they must be had, whatever may be 
the price. 
The Canvass-Back will feed readily on grain, especially 
wheat, and may be decoyed to particular places by baiting 
them with that grain for several successive days. Some few 
years since, a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near 
the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, in the autumn, and went 
to pieces. The wheat floated out in vast quantities, and the 
whole surface of the bay was in a few days covered with Ducks 
of a kind altogether unknown to the people of that quarter. 
The gunners of the neighbourhood collected in boats, in every 
direction, shooting them ; and so successful were they, that, 
as Mr. Beaseley informs me, two hundred and forty were 
killed in one day, and sold among the neighbours, at twelve 
and a half cents apiece, without the feathers. The wounded 
ones were generally abandoned, as being too difficult to 
be come up with. They continued about for three weeks, 
and during the greater part of that time a continual can- 
nonading was heard from every quarter. The gunners 
called them Sea Ducks. They were all Canvass-Backs, at 
