146 
THE CANYASS-BACK DUCK. 
that time on their way from the north, when this floating feast 
attracted their attention, and for a while arrested them in 
their course. A pair of these very Ducks I myself bought 
in Philadelphia market at the time, from an Egg Harbor 
gunner, and never met with their superior, either in weight 
or excellence of flesh. When it was known among those 
people the loss they had sustained in selling for twenty-five 
cents what would have brought them from a dollar to a 
dollar and a half per pair, universal surprise and regret were 
naturally enough excited. 
The Canvass-Back is two feet long, and three feet in 
extent, and, when in good order, weighs three pounds ; the 
bill is large, rising high in the head, three inches in length, 
and one inch and three-eighths thick at the base, of a glossy 
black ; eye, very small ; irides, dark red ; cheeks and fore part 
of the head, blackish-brown ; rest of the head and greater 
part of the neck, bright glossy reddish chestnut, ending in a 
broad space of black that covers the upper part of the breast, 
and spreads round to the back; back, scapulars, and ter- 
tials, white, faintly marked with an infinite number, of 
transverse, waving lines or points, as if done with a pencil ; 
whole lower parts of the breast, also the belly, white, 
slightly pencilled in the same manner, scarcely perceptible 
on the breast, pretty thick towards the vent; wing-coverts, 
gray, with numerous specks of blackish; primaries and 
secondaries, pale slate, two or three of the latter of which 
nearest the body are finely edged with deep velvety black, 
