River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-06-04
DOOM OF THE cANVASBACK.
This Species of Duck Is Rapidly Being
disseminated by Various Means
Of Destruction.

the leglOnS OF guns Tor many years TO
come. The territory in which they
make their homes is vast, many parts
of it are inaccessible, and they are
fecund.
There is one beautiful and luscious
flyer, however, which seems doomed to
go out of existence long before the
mallard and the teal. That is the
The decrease in numbers
OF these birds within ten years is not
able, and each succeeding season sees
fewer of them, says the New York
Sun
This is apparent, not only in Chesa-
peake bay, but also all along the At
lantic coast from Maryland down.
They are fewer in Barnegat bay than
they have ever been. They will be few
er next year.
Shotgun men in all of the thousands
of little bays and inlets of the South
Atlantic noted last winter that the
fiocksj of canvasbacks were smaller
and more infrequent All of these
places grow wild celery, many of them
are remote, and the birds would come
to them in hordes if there were any
hordes left.
Fifteen years ago it was no trick at
all on canvasback water for good, pa
tient shot, shooting from a tank blind,
to kill from 20 to so pairs day. On
White Duck lake, Texas, So called be-
cause of the swarms of canvasbacl1s
~ yo4 Il III !
in droves.
That is all passed. The man who
shoots for living on White Duck lake
these days has a hard living. That is
true of the entire Texas coast from
Brownsville to the Sabine river; it is
true of the Louisiana coast, of the Mis-
sissippi and Alabama coast, of the
Georgia coast.
The canvasbacks are not there as
they have been. They are not any
where in the world as they have been.
Shot at, starved out, driven out, kept
harried, their nests broken up, their
feeding grounds ruined, they
are a vanishing race, noble race, but
sentenced to certain extinction. A
years from now pair of them
will be as much of curiosity in park
pond as is now the golden pheasant in
its cage.
Three causes have contributed to the
destruction of the canvasback: gun
ners, nesters and carp.
The birds, SO highly priced by cpl
cures, command such Lucullan prices
in market, that men who shoot for
bread have pursued them Welentlessly
Facing the proposition that two cam
vasbacks are worth commercially a
dozen fat millards, the men with the
smoothbores have devoted themselves
to extirpating the tribe. If man
puts in long, cold day in blind and
gets six of them he has earned big
wage-something like six or seven dol
lars-and he would have to do lot of
killing of other varieties to make so
much money.
The nesters have searched for and
found their nests in hundreds because
the eggs command high price. Many
fanciers want them to cross with the
domestic duck; others want them to
use as decoys.
The carp have thinned them by de-
stroying their food. The man who
brought the first German carp to this
country is in class with the man who
brought the gypsy moth and the man
who brought the English sparrow
Whenever German, carp is putinto a
lake which grows wild celery, that lake
in a little while bids farewell to the
which nested oil it, or Wis
tied it in fall and spring, because the
carp will multiply enormously and eat
all of the celery roots down to the
very tip of the main radicle 1t is
fish which uses its hoggish snout to
root in the mud. 1t stirs up the mud
and poisons all other fish, except bull
heads, and it eats celery.
A familiar instance of this is fur
nished by a large lake in southern Wis
consin. 1t was filed with celery. The
on their fall fight visited
it in thousands. A club of rich men
bought the lake and land and had an
exclusive canvasback shooting organ
ization.
Some wise one among them put in
carp for reasons known only to him
self. The celery is gone; the canvas
backs are gone, tho club is going.
Another thing working against the
survival of this fowl is it's Unborn fool
ishness. 1t is large and beautiful and
well favored, but it has no sense. 1t
will decoy to anything that looks like
a duck. 1t is always hungry and
imagines that any resting flock is
gorging its tidbit.
When plentiful no one is troubled to
kill it; but the time is coming when
the man who returns to town or camp
with brace of canvasbacks will be re-
garded much as a man who returns
with a brace of black swans.
Necessary Arrangement.
Everything is ready for the cere-
mony, I trust?" said the foreign
at the interna tioral mar
rage.
collectors sent by his lordship's cred
torso
''Three pews from the front, sir,
where they can KEEP him continually in
sight"
"Good! Then let the wedding pro-
ceed." - Cincinnati Commercial-Trib
lne.
Indian Peers.
All will agree in acknowledging the