the close time commencing on 1st March is by no means
too early. The nest, composed of grass, lined with down, is
usually placed on the ground, near the margin of rivers or
lakes, but often at a considerable distance from water. The
Author has known of one in a field of young wheat; sometimes
in a thick hedge-row or in a wood, and a stack of
faggots is rather a favourite site in semi-populous districts.
Occasionally the nest is at a considerable elevation from
the ground: one mentioned by Tunstall, at Etchingliam, in
Sussex, wrns on an oak twenty-five feet from the ground; the
author of the ‘ Rural Sports ’ records an instance of a Duck
taking possession of the deserted nest of a Hawk in a large
oak ; Montagu makes mention of one that deposited her
eggs in the principal fork of a large elm-tree, and brought
her young down in safety; and Selby records an instance,
within his own knowledge, and near his own residence,
“ where a Wild Duck laid her eggs in the old nest of a
Crow, at least thirty feet from the ground. At this elevation
she hatched her young; and as none of them were found
dead beneath the tree, it was presumed she carried them
safely to the ground in her bill, a mode of conveyance known
to be frequently adopted by the Eider Duck.” * The eggs
are of a dull greenisli-grey colour, smooth on the surface,
averaging 2-25 by 1*6 in. The young are two months or
ten weeks before they can fly, and formerly advantage was
taken of this inability to have, in the fens, an annual
driving of the young Ducks before they took wing. Numbers
of people assembled, who boat a vast tract, and forced the
birds into a net placed at the spot where the sport was to
terminate. A hundred and fifty dozens have been taken at
once ; but this detrimental practice has been abolished by
Act of Parliament. (Pennant.)
The Mallard feeds on grain or seeds, worms, slugs, and
insects. As soon as the females begin to sit, the males
leave them, and soon after undergo that remarkable change
in coloration which has already been referred to, and which
* [These, and other abnormal situations, were considered very wonderful half
a century ago, but since then they have often been recorded.—Ed.]
is thus characteristically described by Waterton from personal
observation :—
“ At the close of the breeding-season the Drake undergoes
a very remarkable change of 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. About the 24tli of May the breast
and back of the Drake exhibit the first appearance of a change
of colour. In a few days after this the curled featheis
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 of June scarcely one single green
feather is to be seen on the head and neck of the bird. By
the 6tli 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 lOtli of October the Drake will appear
again in all his rich magnificence of dress; than which
scarcely anything throughout the whole wild field of nature
can be seen more lovely, or better arranged to charm the
eye of man. This description of the change of plumage
in the Mallard has been penned down with great care. I
enclosed two male birds in a coop, from the middle of May
to the middle of October, and saw them every day during
the whole of their captivity. Perhaps the moulting in other
individuals may vary a trifle with regard to time. Thus we
may say that once every year, for a very short peiiod, the
Drake goes, as it were, into an eclipse, so that, from the
early part of the month of July to about the fii st week in
August, neither in the poultry-yards of civilized man, nor
through the vast expanse of Nature’s wildest range, can
there be found a Drake in that plumage which, at all other
seasons of the year, is so remarkably splendid and di\ei-
sified.”
The Mallard is the undoubted origin of many of the