33 THE PORT FOLIO, AND NEW YORK MONTHLY MAGAZINE, VOL. I. CONDUCTED BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL, ESQ. Various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-COWPER. JANUARY, 1822. No. 1. ILLUSTRATIONS OF IVANHOE. No. I.-Ivanhoe crowned at the Tournament by Rowena. "On the lower step of this throne the champion was made to kneel down. Indeed his whole action since the fight had ended seemed rather to have been upon the impulse of those around him than from his own free will; and it was observed that he tottered as they guided him the second time across the lists. Rowena, descended from her station with a graceful and dignified step. "The knight stooped his head, and kissed the hand of the lovely sovereign by whom his valour had been rewarded; and then, sinking yet further forward, lay prostrate at her feet." Vol. 1. p. 256, 7. ART. I.—American Natural History. The Canvas-Back Duck. Anas Valisineria. [Peale's Museum, No. 2816.] From Wilson's Ornithology. THIS celebrated American species, as far as can be judged from the best figures and descriptions of foreign birds, is altogether unknown in Europe. It approaches nearest to the Pochard of England, Anas ferina, but differs from that bird in being superior in size and weight, in the greater magnitude of its bill, and the general whiteness of its plumage. A short comparison between the two will elucidate this point. The Canvas-back measures two feet in length, by three feet in extent, and when in the best order weighs three pounds and upwards. The Pochard, according to Latham and Bewick, measures nineteen inches in length, and thirty in extent, and weighs one pound twelve or thirteen ounces. The latter writer says of the Pochard, "the plumage above and below is wholly covered with prettily freckled slender dusky threads disposed transversely in close-set zig-zag lines, on a pale ground, more or less shaded off with ash;" a description much more applicable to the bird figured beside it, the Red Head, and which very probably is the species meant. In the figure of the Pochard given by Mr. Bewick, who is generally correct, the bill agrees very well with that of our Red Head; but is scarcely half the size and thickness of that of the Canvas-back; and the figure in the Planches Enluminees corresponds in that respect with Bewick's. In short, either these writers are egregiously erroneous in their figures and descriptions, or the present duck was altogether unknown to them. Considering the latter supposition the more probable of the two, I have designated this as a new species, and shall proceed to detail some particulars of its history. The Canvas-back Duck arrives in the United States from the north about the middle of October; a few descend to the Hudson and Delaware, but the great body of these birds resort to the numerous rivers belonging to and in the neighbourhood of the Chesapeake Bay, particularly the Susquehanna, the Patapsco, Potowmac, and James' rivers, which appear to be their general winter rendezvous. Beyond this to the south, I can find no certain accounts of them. At the Susquehanna they are called Canvas-backs, on the Potowmac, White-backs, and on James' River, Sheldrakes. They are seldom found at a great distance up any of these rivers, or even in the salt bay; but in that particular part of tide water, where a certain grass-like plant grows, on the roots of which they feed. This plant, which is said to be a species of Valisineria, grows on fresh water shoals of from seven to nine feet (but never where these are occasionally dry,) in long narrow grass-like blades of four or five feet in length; the root is white and has some resemblance to small celery. This grass is in many places so thick that a boat can with difficulty be rowed through it. The shores are lined with large quantities of it torn up by the ducks, and drifted up by the winds, lying like hay in wind rows. Wherever this |