Game: Small Game and Wildfowl

Over the centuries, Americans have eaten an astonishing array of game animals and birds. Large birds, such as cranes and swans, were so prized that they had largely disappeared from the East Coast by 1750. Wild ducks were plentiful, and early colonists ate them often. Canvasback ducks, for example, wintered along the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where the wild celery they fed on flavored their flesh. Canvasbacks commanded high prices. Not far behind as delicacies were redhead and blackhead ducks, followed by teal and mallard.