Canvas-backs

“Fuligula vallisneria. Canvas-back. Adult male: The head close-feathered. Bill high at the base and narrow throughout or scarcely widened toward end, sloping gradually up to the top of the head in line with the sweep of the forehead, altogether somewhat like a goose’s in shape; decidedly longer than head, 2 &1/2 inches to nearly or quite 3 in length, measured along the culmen; the nostrils reaching the middle of the bill, their fore end half-way from the upper corner to end of bill. Bill not blue, black-belted, but blackish throughout. Eyes red. Feet grayish-blue. Head and upper neck not coppery brownish-red, but dark reddish-brown, further much obscured with dusky or quite blackish about the bill and on top. Ground color of back white, very finely vermiculated with zigzag blackish bars much narrower than the intervening spaces, and tending to break up, or mostly broken up, into little chains or dots across the feathers; the resulting silvery-gray tone consequently several shades lighter than in the red-head.” Elliot Coues, 1884

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