This enhancement of its value I look upon as having arisen from the preference given to it by the epicures of our Middle Districts, who have strangely lauded it as superior to every other duck in the world. This alleged pre-eminence has indeed become so deeply impressed on the minds of many of our Southerns, that they have on various occasions procured the transportation of numbers of Canvass-backs from Baltimore to Charleston in South Carolina, and even to Savannah in Georgia, although this species is by no means uncommon within a few miles of the latter city, as well as on the Great Santee River. I well remember that on my pointing out to a friend, now alas dead, several dozens of these birds in the market of Savannah, he would scarcely believe that I was not mistaken, and assured me that they were looked upon as being poor, dry, and very fishy, in short not half so good as Mallards, or Blue-winged Teals. With this I cordially agreed, for there, at that season, they are not better than represented. I found this species in considerable numbers on and about the numerous inlets and rivers of East Florida; but did not see a single individual on the Gulf of St Lawrence, along the coast of Labrador, or on that of Newfoundland. It arrives in the neighbourhood of New Orleans from the 20th of October to the end of December, coming in flocks of eight or twelve, probably the members of a single family, and, unlike many other species, keeping in small groups during winter. At the approach of spring however they flock together, and about the first of April depart in large bodies. During their stay, they are wont to alight on wet prairies and muddy ponds in all open places, feeding on the seeds of various plants, of which may be particularized the wild oat and the water lily. According to ALEXANDER WILSON, who first described this species, their arrival in autumn in the Middle Districts takes place about the 15th of October; but more recent writers say, that “unless the weather to the north has been severe, the Canvass-back rarely appears till the middle of November.” With this I fully agree, being convinced that their journeys to and from their breeding places are performed across the country. Were this perfectly ascertained, it would prove that this species, unlike most other ducks, instead of removing farther southward in autumn and winter, takes what may be called a lateral march toward our Eastern Districts, in which it remains until the weather has become too cold for its constitution, when it is forced a second time to migrate, and betake itself to warmer parts of the country, where it continues during the rest of the winter.