COMMON DUCK, OR MALLARD. 379 



indeed inhabits more or less the whole continent, from the 

 gulf of Mexico to the 6Sth parallel in the fur countries of the 

 Canadian wilderness. In Europe it is met with every 

 where, up to the dreary climates of Greenland, where many 

 even pass the greater part of the winter. Avoiding the sea 

 coast, it is but rarely that the Mallard visits this vicinity, 

 retiring south by an interior route. They breed in the in- 

 land woody districts of the fur countries, and more or less 

 through all the intermediate space as far south as Pennsyl- 

 vania. In England also, as well as in Sweden, Denmark, 

 'Germany, and all parts of the vast dominions of Russia, no 

 less than Arctic Europe, and the Aleutian Islands in the 

 north Pacific, the Wild Duck is known to breed. They 

 nest commonly on the borders of rivers and lakes, some- 

 times at a considerable distance from water, amongst reeds, 

 grass, or in fields and copses, according to the conve- 

 nience of the locality, and occasionally even upon trees 

 impending over waters. For its nest it scrapes together a 

 small quantity of such dry weeds as happen to be con- 

 tiguous, and lays from 10 to 18 eggs of a bluish-white. At 

 the time of incubation, the female plucks the down from her 

 breast to line the nest, and frequently covers the eggs when 

 she leaves them. 



Although it is most natural for all those birds, whose 

 young run as soon as they are hatched, to deposit their 

 eggs on the ground, in the Duck we have some curious 

 exceptions. It is asserted by a person of veracity in 

 England, that a half domesticated Duck was known to nest 

 in a tower, where she hatched her young, and brought them 

 down in safety to a piece of water at a considerable distance. 

 Mr. Tunstall mentions one, at Etchingham, in Sussex, 

 which was found sitting upon 9 eggs, on an oak 25 feet 

 from the ground, and in another instance one was known to 

 take possession of the nest of a Hawk in a large oak. 



