Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/743

 CANVAS-BACK 733 color, finely pencilled with dusky ; lower tail coverts blackish brown, intertwined with white. Length 22 inches, wing 0^ inches. The bill is bluish black ; the feet and legs are Canvas-Back Duck (Aythya Vallisneria). dark slate color, the irides fiery red. The fe- male is somewhat smaller, and is less brilliantly and less distinctly colored than the male. The canvas-back duck returns from its breeding places at the north about the first of Novem- ber, and during the winter extends its visits to the southern parts of the seacoast of the United States. It is not unfrequently shot in the eastern part of the Great South bay of Long Island, in Long Island sound, on the shores and bays of New Jersey, and in the es- tuary of the Delaware ; but in these localities it is but a common duck, nowise superior to many others, and decidedly inferior to the red- head. It is only in the Chesapeake bay, about the mouths of the Potomac river and Gunpow- der creek, that it becomes superior to all other wild fowl. This excellence is attributable solely to the peculiar food which it finds in that estuary, a plant commonly known as wild cel- ery, botanically as the eastern Vallisneria, or Valllsmrid Americana, which must not be confounded with the zostera marina, or com- mon eel grass. This plant, of which the can- vas-back duck is so fond that it derives from it its specific name of Vallisneria, grows on shoals, where the water is from 8 to 9 ft. in depth, which are never wholly bare. It has long, narrow, grass-like blades, and a white root somewhat resembling small celery, whence it has its vulgar name, though it has no con- nection whatever with that plant. This grass is in some places so thick as materially to im- pede a boat when rowed through it. It is on the root alone that the canvas-back feeds. For these roots the canvas-backs dive assiduously and continually, tearing up the grass, and strewing it on the surface of the water in long, regular rows. The duck rises to the sur- face as soon as he has obtained his favorite root, which he cannot swallow under water ; and, before he has got his eyes well open, says Wilson, is often robbed of his meal by the widgeons or bald-pates (mareca Americana), which never dive, but, being equally fond of the root of the Vallisneria, depend on their adroitness and agility to rob the industrious canvas-backs. On this account the bald-pates congregate eagerly, as far as they are allowed to do so, with the canvas-backs; who, how- ever, live in a constant state of contention with their thievish neighbors, and, being by far the heavier and more powerful fowl, easily beat off the widgeons, who are compelled to re- treat, and make their approaches only by stealth at convenient opportunities. With the canvas-backs also associate the red-heads, the scaups, or, as they are called in the Chesa- peake, the black-heads, and some other varie- ties, with which they feed on terms of amity. The excellence of the flesh of the canvas- backs causes them to be much sought after for the market, but in the waters which they fre- quent they are so strictly preserved by the real sportsmen, who abound in that part of the country, and have obtained the control of most of the shores, that the worst methods of poach- ing are prohibited. The canvas-backs will not fly, like geese and many species of ducks, to decoys ; and the anchoring of batteries on the feeding flats, and the sailing after the birds on their grounds with boats, are not permitted under any circumstances, which has preserved thus far this delicious fowl from extermination. The ordinary mode of killing them is by shoot- ing them on the wing, from behind screens, or blinds, as they are termed, of reeds, arranged on the projecting points of land, over or in the vicinity of which the fowl are compelled to fly in going up and coming down the bay, to and from their feeding grounds. The velocity at which they fly, as well as the height of their course, renders it extremely hard to hit them ; and a great allowance must be made in taking aim, in order not to shoot far behind the object, which will surely be the case if the sight of the gun be directly laid on the passing fowl. Add to this, that the feathers on the breast of this duck, as of many others of the family, are so closely compacted together, of so thick and elastic texture, and so matted by the aid of the oil from the gland in the rump with which the bird lubricates them, that any ordinary shot, striking on the breast as the fowl comes to- ward the shooter, will make no impression. The best and most deliberate fowlers, there- fore, when they have time to do so, let the flights pass, and then shoot them with the grain of the feathers. A remarkable propensity of these birds is to be attracted by the appear- ance of any unusual sight on the shores ; and anything of this nature will induce them to leave their feeding grounds, and swim in great flocks of thousands together, perfectly fearless, or rather reckless, to the places where men lie