Bill entirely greenish-black, longer than head, nearly as long as middle toe (without claw), narrow, high at base, and nostrils medium.
Iris red.
The weight of a pair of good fat canvas-back ducks with feathers on will average six pounds.
RED-HEAD.
Feathers of the head rather long, giving it a puffy appearance.
Male with head and neck chestnut red. Fore parts of body, wings and tail, black, under parts white; back and sides whitish, waved with black, the dark waved lines unbroken. Female everywhere duller in color than the male.
Bill dull blue, with a black belt across the end, shorter than the head, shorter than the middle toe (without claw), broad, depressed; nostrils within its basal half. Always to be distinguished from other ducks by shape of the bill.
Iris yellow.
The weight of a pair of good fat red-head ducks with feathers on will average five pounds.
The red-head duck is found in greater or less numbers throughout North America, on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, breeding in high northern latitudes, and frequenting in winter the southern portions of the continent as far as Mexico. The red-head is not common on the coasts of New England. During the winter months it abounds considerably along the south shore of Long Island, and is extremely abundant from this point south, especially at Chesapeake Bay and Currituck. Its flesh is excellent, and when it is enabled to feed on the well-known Vallisneria is almost fully equal in point of flavor to that of the canvas-back. The diet of the red-head is by preference vegetable, but in default of a sufficiency of food of this nature, they will, like other ducks, eat frogs, tadpoles, and various mollusks. In the West they feed largely on corn and wheat, which they glean from the fields, and on wild oats, the seed of the water-lily, and roots and leaves of other aquatic plants.