being covered with stiffish down and quite alert, accompany their mother to the water, where they swim
and dive as expertly as if they had been born in iti,”
In autumn, winter, and spring the Mallard is clothed in the style of plumage represented in the front figure
o f the accompanying plate; but the latter season being passed and reproduction achieved, his finery is
exchanged for a sombre dress o f various shades o f brown, the beautifully curled feathers on his rump
are thrown off, and his appearance so closely resembles that o f the female that they are scarcely
distinguishable one from the other. This ifummer-plumage o f the Drake is carried while the Duck
hatches forth her young; so that father, mother, and chicks, on the latter assuming their first feathers,
are all very much alike in appearance. A change, however, soon takes place in the plumage of the Drakes,
who assume a characteristic dress, which, as before stated, is carried through the winter and spring.
The change in the plumage o f the Mallard is thus characteristically described by the late Mr. Waterton
from personal observation :—
“ At the close of the breeding-season the drake undergoes a very remarkable change o f plumage. On
viewing it, all speculation on the part of the ornithologist is utterly confounded; for there is not the
smallest clue afforded him by which he may be enabled to trace out the cause of this strange phenomenon.
To Him, alone, who has ordered the Ostrich to remain on the earth, and allowed the Bat to range through
the etherial vault o f heaven, is known why the Drake for a very short period of the year should be so
completely clothed in the raiment o f the female that it requires a keen and penetrating eye to distinguish
the one from the other. About the 24th o f May the breast and back o f the drake exhibit the first
appearance o f a change o f colour. In a few days after this the curled feathers above the tail drop out, and
grey feathers begin to appear amongst the lovely green plumage which surrounds the eyes. Every
succeeding day now brings marks of rapid change. By the 23rd o f June scarcely one single green feather
is to be seen on the head and neck of the bird. By the 6th of July every feather of the former brilliant
plumage has disappeared, and the male has received a garb like that of the female, though of a somewhat
darker tint. In the early part of August this new plumage begins to drop off gradually; and by the 10th of
October the drake will appear again in all his rich magnificence o f dress, than which scarcely any thing
throughout the whole wide field o f nature can he seen more lovely or better arranged to charm the eye
of man. Thus we may say that once every year, for a very short period, the drake goes, as it were, into an
eclipse, so that, from the early part o f the month o f July to about the first week o f August, neither in the
poultry-yards o f civilized man nor through the vast expanse o f nature’s widest range can there be found a
drake in that plumage which at all other seasons of the year is so remarkably splendid and diversified.”
The situation of the nest is exceedingly varied, being sometimes placed among the reeds at the edge of
the water the birds frequent; at others it is constructed far up on the heath or in the forest, and not
unfrequently on the head o f a pollard oak or willow, in a hollow o f the bare ground, in the midst of a
tussock o f grass, under a stone, &c. The composition of the nest is as varied as its site, being in some
instances a bulky mass rudely constructed of flags, sedges, grasses, &c., at others of grass intermixed and
lined with feathers and down. The eggs are from six to ten in number, rather larger and longer than
those o f the common fowl, and of a dull light greenish stone-colour. The chicks immediately after their
exclusion from the eggs are exceeding alert, have all their energies perfect, and readily seek for, and obtain,
their insect food both on the land and on the water, and hide themselves, on the approach of a fancied enemy,
with great facility among the herbage or any other object that may offer seclusion and safety; indeed, at
this period o f their existence their shyness is most remarkable, a disposition not readily effaced if an attempt
he made towards their domestication, either when hatched by a tame Duck, or by their frequent fosterparent,
the ordinary fowl.
The Mallard frequently interbreeds with the Pintail, the Muscovy Duck, and other species, the produce
being sometimes twice the weight o f those from which they spring: thus in December, 1862, the late
Earl of Craven sent me two birds, the product o f a cross between the Mallard and the Pintail, which
weighed, the one 6 lbs. 3 oz., the other 6 lbs. Of course these enormously heavy Ducks were domesticated
and not wild birds. The weights o f two wild Mallards I killed at Somerleyton, in fair but not
extraordinary condition, were respectively 2 lbs. 11 oz. and 2 lbs. 15 oz.
It is quite unnecessary for me to speak o f the excellence o f this bird as a viand for the table, or the
usefulness of its feathers, since both are so generally known that they need not be commented upon;
neither need I attempt to describe the various modes o f capturing the bird on its arrival in this country by
means of nets, decoys, &c.; those who desire informatiou on these points will find them admirably
described and illustrated in the Rev. Richard Lubbock’s ‘ Observations on the Fauna o f Norfolk.’
The figures are a trifle smaller than the natural size, with a flight o f these birds in the distance,