COMMON DUCK. 35 



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. (It is 

 for all that very imperfect, and wants the accuracy and minute- 

 ness necessary for it in a physiological observation). 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 period, the Drake goes, as it 

 were, into an eclipse, so that, from the early part of the month 

 of July, to about the first 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 remark- 

 ably splendid and diversified." 



Habits. — The Mallard, which is one of our truly indige- 

 nous Ducks, occurs in variable numbers in all parts of the 

 country, being more abundant in marshy and thinly peopled 

 districts, than in such as are dry and well cultivated. It is 

 almost needless to remark that the great improvements in 

 agriculture that have taken place within the last fifty years, 

 and especially the vast extension of draining, have banished 

 it from many tracts, Avhere it was formerly very plentiful. 

 Still it is by no means rare in any large section of the country, 

 and in very many districts quite common. In Avinter, it 

 for the most part removes from the higher grounds to the 

 hollows and level tracts, and in frosty weather betakes itself 

 to the shores of estuaries and even of the open sea. In the 

 Cromarty and Beauly Firths, great numbers occur along the 

 shores during the winter and spring, and at night especially 

 frequent the muddy parts, where they feed on worms and 

 mollusca. Around Edinburgh are numerous open ditches, 

 and some brooks, to which they resort at night, from October 

 to April, when they may be started in great numbers by a 

 person searching their haunts by moonlight. A friend of 

 mine has often shot them on such occasions, and I have myself 

 seen them thus engaged. It being by touch more than by 



