DISPLAY OF THE MALLARD IN RELATION TO PAIRING 79 



No. I. In this preliminary position the drake floats idly 

 on the water, or swims restlessly to and fro in a 

 constrained attitude, with neck retracted so that 

 the head is sunk closely into the shoulders. 

 No. 2. The bird raises itself abruptly in the water, at the 

 same time lowering the bill to the surface, and 

 then passing it rapidly up the breast. A low 

 note, part whistle, part groan, accompanies the 

 action. 

 No. 3. The forepart of the body is depressed and the tail 

 raised, the bill being simultaneously opened to 

 the utterance of a short series of soft notes. 

 No. 4. A simultaneous upward throw of head and tail, 



usually immediately followed by 

 No. 5, in which the performer swims rapidly to and fro 

 in various directions, with the head and neck 

 outstretched horizontally just above the surface of 

 the water. 

 No. 6 (not described by Mr Wormald). The forepart of 

 the body is raised rather slowly out of the water, 

 the head and neck being extended upwards at 

 an abrupt angle. A characteristic head-shake 

 frequently precedes the action. 

 Mr Wormald has described these actions (1-5) in what he 

 considers to be the normal order of occurrence, with the 

 reservation that the sequence is by no means always constant 

 or complete. On the whole I should be inclined to place 

 them in the following order as perhaps the most characteristic 

 1, 6, 2, 3, 4, 5. There is some reason to believe that this 

 order illustrates approximately a rising scale of nervous 

 excitation. 



Display in the female is, relatively speaking, feebly 

 developed, and hardly exceeds a more or less imperfect 

 reproduction of the more elaborate performances of the male. 

 If it be permissible to assume that display, originating with 

 the drake, is now in process of acquirement by the duck, then 

 the relative inheritance intensity of the various actions in 

 the latter might be expected to supply an approximate index 

 to the racial sequence of acquirement in the male. It is 



