632 BIRDS—ANATIDAR. 
FULIGULA VALLISNERIA (Wils.) Steph. 
Canvas=back Duck. 
Fuligula vallisneria, KIRTLAND, Prelim. Rep. Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 67; Ohio Geolog. 
Surv., 1838, 166, 167.—WHEATON, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 574; 
Reprint, 1875, 14.--LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 17; Revised List, Journ. Cin. 
Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 186; Reprint, 20; Summer Birds, ib., iii, 1830, 229. 
Aythya vallisneria, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 370; Reprint, 1861, 12. 
Canvass-back Duck, KirTLAND, Fam. Visitor, i, 1850, 72. 
Anas vallisneria, WILSON, Am. Orn., viii, 1814, 103. 
Fuligula vallisneria, STEPHENS, Shaw’s Gen. Zool., xii, pt. ti, 1824, 196. 
Aythya vallisneria, Born, Isis, 1826, 980. ! 
Similar to the preceding, but bill blackish, high at the base and narrow throughout, 
not shorter than head (two and a half or more), the nostrils at its middle; head much 
obscured with dusky; black waved lines of the back sparse and much broken up into 
dots, the whitish thus predominating. 
Habitat, North America. Breeds from the Northern States northward. Winters from 
the Middle States southward to Guatemala. 
Common spring and fall migrant on the lake, less common on the Reser- 
voirs, and rather yvare generally throughout the State The Canvas- 
back, the most highly esteemed duck for the table in the Eastern States, 
ranks less highly in the interior, where it would seem that Mallards, Wid- 
geons, Wood Duck and Teal, loose little by comparison. As stated 
above, this and the preceding species are frequently confounded. Dr. 
Coues gives the following differential diagnosis which will enable any 
one to separate these species: | 
‘¢Some persons experience difficulty in discriminating between the Canvas-back and 
Red-head, but there is no occasion for this, at least in the case of males. In the Red-head, 
the whole head is clear chestnut-red, with coppery or bronzy reflections, aud the bill is 
elear pale grayish-blue, with a dark tip. In the Canvas back, nearly all the head is ob 
scured with blackish-brown, and the bill is dusky thronghout. There is also a marked 
difference in the shape of the head, and bill; in the Red-head, the head is putty and 
gicbose, sloping abruptly down to the base of the bill; in the Canvass-back, the head is 
longer and narrower, and slopes gradually down to the bill, which rises high on the 
forehead. These distinctions of form hold with the females, thongh less evident in that 
sex. In the Cauvas-back, moreover, the back has much more light than dark color, in- 
stead of an equal amount or less, fhe fine black lines being very narrow and mostly 
broken up into minute dots ” 
eNUS BUCEPHALA. Baird. 
Bill feathered as in Fuligula, shorter than the head, abont equal to tarsus, compressed 
and somewhat tapering, nostrils near tue middle. Tail longer and more pointed than in 
Fuligula, about half the wing. 
