Huxley, A "Disharmony" in the Reproductive Habits of the Wild Duck. 



cluck, and at last one will succeed in treading her. As this act takes 

 place i n the water, it is apparently somewhat unpleasant and also 

 tiring to the female, who has to struggle all the time to keep her 

 head above the surface. When the first drake has completed the 

 process, the duck is rather exhausted and cannot so easily prevent a 

 second from pairing with her. So it goes on until eventually 

 the duck is drowned. 



This was told me by Mr. James Street, Head Keeper at the 

 Tring Reservoirs. He added that every year about 70 females 

 were picked up drowned by the keepers there and that no doubt a 

 considerable further number were not found. There are about 1000 

 to 1200 pairs of Wild Duck on the Reservoirs in spring; suppose 

 we put the total of birds thus killed at 80 to 100 (i. e. allowing 

 only 1030 to escape detection by the keepers). Then from 7 

 to 10/ of the total number of females are killed by the 

 males in this way every year. 



At first I hardly liked to believe these statements, although 

 Mr. Street's word, I knew, was a sufficient guarantee; but I soon 

 had ocular demonstration of their truth. In the first place, I saw 

 numerous wild duck dead in the water, and these were all females; 

 on one day I counted 11 along one side of a single one of the 

 four reservoirs. In the second place, I once witnessed the process 

 in operation. Near the shore of one reservoir I noticed a dense 

 crowd of drakes swimming excitedly about, all quacking at the top 

 of their voices; through the glass I made out a single duck, which 

 one of the drakes was treading. Remembering what the keeper 

 had told me, 1 ran up and scared them into flight by shouting. This, 

 however, was of no use; the drakes kept all round the duck; 

 when she settled they all settled too, and the treading began again, 

 now uninfluenced by shouts and out of reach of stones. It was 

 a painful and repulsive sight. The duck was getting rapidly enfeebled; 

 after one drake had finished the act of treading (which often takes 

 a considerable time to accomplish to his satisfaction), the duck was 

 left floating low and rather limply on the surface, only to fall a victim 

 almost immediately to the instincts of another male. At last she 

 could scarcely struggle; and finally, becoming quite exhausted, would 

 at times disappear under water for a considerable space. Every 

 time she came up, however, another drake swam to her; but 

 finally (though they persisted in trying) they could not tread her 

 properly, as she offered no resistance, and so at once disappeared 

 below the surface when they put their weight on her back. I at 

 last thought she was drowned, as she was out of sight for so long; 

 but finally her head and neck and just the top of her back floated up 

 (I can use no other word) some fifteen yards away. This time no 

 drake happened to notice her, and she thus succeeded in swimming 



