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T H E M A L L A R D.
ANAS BOSCH AS, LINN.
P L A T E C C X X I . MALES AND FEMALES.
ALTHOUGH it is commonly believed that the Mallard is found abundantly
everywhere in the United States, I have received sufficient proof
to the contrary. If authors had acknowledged that they state so on report,
or had said that in the tame state the bird is common, I should not
have blamed them. According to my observation, and I may be allowed
to say that I have had good opportunities, this valuable species is extremely
rare in the wild state, in the neighbourhood of Boston in Massachusetts
; and in this assertion, I am supported by my talented and
amiable friend Mr NDTTALL, who has resided there for many years. Farther
eastward, this bird is so rare that it is scarcely known, and not one
was seen by myself or my party beyond Portland in Maine. On the
western coast of Labrador none of the inhabitants that we conversed with
had ever seen the Mallard, and in Newfoundland the people were equally
unacquainted with it, the species being in those countries replaced by the
Black Duck, Anas fusca. From New York southward, the Mallards
become more plentiful, and numbers of them are seen in the markets of
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond in Virginia, and other towns. Although
they are very abundant in the Carolinas and Floridas, as well as
in Lower Louisiana, they are much more so in the Western Country.
The reason of this is merely that the Mallard, unlike the sea ducks, is
rarely seen on salt water, and that its course from the countries where it
chiefly breeds is across the interior of the continent. From our great
lakes, they spread along the streams, betake themselves, to the ponds,
wet meadows, submersed savannahs, and inland swamps, and are even
found in the thick beech woods, in early autumn, and indeed long before
the males have acquired the dark green colour of the head. Many of
them proceed beyond the limits of the United States.
It would be curious to know when this species was first domesticated ;
but, Reader, the solution of such a question is a task on which I shall
not venture. In the domestic state every body knows the Mallard.
When young it affords excellent food, and when old lays eggs. A bed
MALLARD. 165
made of its feathers is far preferable to the damp earth of the camp of an
American woodsman, or the plank on which the trained soldier lays his
wearied limbs at night. You may find many other' particulars if you
consult in chronological order all the compilers from ALDROVANDDS to
the present day.
Be not startled, good Reader, when I tell you that many of these
ducks are bred in the lakes near the Mississippi, nay even in some of the
small ponds in the low lands or bottoms of the States of Kentucky, Indiana
and Illinois; for in many parts of those districts I have surprised
the. females on their eggs, have caught the young when their mother was
cautiously and with anxiety leading them for greater safety to some
stream, and have shot many a fat one before the poor thing could fly,
and when it was so plump, tender, and juicy, that I doubt much whether,
you, like myself, should not much prefer them to the famed Canvassbacked
Duck.
Look at that Mallard as he floats on the lake ; see his elevated head
glittering with emerald-green, his amber eyes glancing in the light! Even
at this distance, he has marked you, and suspects that you bear no good
will towards him, for he sees that you have a gun, and he has many a
time been frightened by its report, or that of some other. The wary
bird draws his feet under his body, springs upon them, opens his wings,
and with loud quacks bids you farewell.
Now another is before you, on the margin of that purling streamlet.
How brisk are all his motions compared with those of his brethren that
waddle across your poultry-yard ! how much more graceful in form and
neat in apparel! The duck at home is the descendant of a race of slaves,
and has lost his native spirit: his wings have been so little used that they
can hardly raise him from the ground. But the free-born, the untamed
duck of the swamps,—see how he springs on wing, and hies away over
the woods.
The Mallards generally arrive in Kentucky and other parts of the
Western Country, from the middle of September to the first of October,
or as soon as the acorns and beech-nuts are fully ripe. In a few days
they are to be found in all the ponds that are covered with seed-bearing
grasses. Some flocks, which appear to be guided by an experienced
leader, come directly down on the water with a rustling sound of their
wings that can be compared only to the noise produced by an Eagle in
the act of stooping upon its prey, while other flocks, as if they felt un