. The American sportsman: containing hints to sportsmen, notes on shooting, and the habits of the game birds and wild fowl of America . CHAPTER XXIX. DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF DUCK, OR RED-HEAD. ANAS FERINA. Beyond a point, just opening to the view,A fleet of ducks collect their scattered crew;Part, soon alarmed, with sudden splatteiing, soar,The rest, remaining, seek the farther shore. HABITS, DESCRIPTION, ETC. HE red-head, second alone in delicacy offlavor to the canvas-back, will now claimour attention. It frequents very muchthe same grounds with the precedingvariety, although
. The American sportsman: containing hints to sportsmen, notes on shooting, and the habits of the game birds and wild fowl of America . CHAPTER XXIX. DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF DUCK, OR RED-HEAD. ANAS FERINA. Beyond a point, just opening to the view,A fleet of ducks collect their scattered crew;Part, soon alarmed, with sudden splatteiing, soar,The rest, remaining, seek the farther shore. HABITS, DESCRIPTION, ETC. HE red-head, second alone in delicacy offlavor to the canvas-back, will now claimour attention. It frequents very muchthe same grounds with the precedingvariety, although not so exclusivelywedded to the waters of the Chesapeakebut that it can be found in otherlocalities in considerable profusion, evenduring the luxuriance of the valisineria. The red-head, like the poachard, or bald-pate, feeds on the blades of the Avater-celery, 307. 308 LEAVISS AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. ■\vlien it cannot filch the tender roots from the canvas-backs. Itis often shot in the Dehiware, Hudson, and other rivers, and visitsthe streams of the South as the winter progresses. The flesh ofthese fowls is so near akin to that of the canvas-backs, that themost delicate palate can hardly distinguish one from the other; andwe have seen many amusing mistakes made by persons professingto be able to tell one duck from the other when served for thetable. The red-head is twenty inches in length and two feet sixinches in extent; bill dark slate, sometimes black, two incheslong, and seven-eighths of an inch thick at the base, furnishedwith a large broad nail at the extremity; irides flame-colored;plumage of the head long, velvety and inflated, running highabove the base of the bill; head, and about two inches of theneck, deep glossy reddish-chestnut; rest of the neck and upperpart of the breast black, spreading round to the back; belly white,becoming dusk
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Keywords: ., bookauthorle, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjecthunting
