Plate CCCI. Male and Female.
Bill as long as the head; tail much rounded, of fourteen feathers.
Male with the bill black; upper part of head and a space along the
base of the bill dusky, a small transverse band of white on the chin;
the rest of the head and the neck all round for more than half its
length, rich brownish-red; a broad belt of brownish-black occupying
the lower part of the neck and the fore part of the body; upper parts
white, minutely undulated with dark grey or blackish; primary quills
brownish-black, tinged with grey towards the base; secondaries
ash-grey, toward the end whitish and undulated, five of them also
having a narrow strip of black along their outer margin; rump and
tail-coverts above and below brownish-black; tail brownish-grey; lower
parts white, the sides and abdomen marked with five undulating grey
lines. Female with the upper parts greyish-brown, the top of the head
darker, the chin whitish, the neck greyish-brown, as are the sides and
abdomen; breast white; wing-coverts brownish-grey; primary quills
greyish-brown, dusky at the end, secondaries ash-grey, five of the
inner with an external black margin; the innermost greyish-brown, like
the back, and with some of the scapulars faintly undulated with
darker; tail greyish-brown, paler at the end; axillars and smaller
under wing-coverts white.
_Male_, 22, 33. _Female_, 20-1/4, 30-3/4.
Abundant during winter from the mouth of the Delaware to New Orleans,
in all the estuaries. Columbia River. Breeds on the Rocky Mountains
and northward.
Canvass-backed Duck, Anas valisneria, Wils. Amer. Orn. v.
viii. p. 103.
Fuligula valisneria, Bonap. Syn. p. 392.
Fuligula valisneria, Canvass-back Duck, Swains. &. Rich. F.
Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 450.
Canvass-backed Duck, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 430.
Canvass-back Duck, Fuligula valisneriana, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
iv. p. 1.