26 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Mallard or Wild Duck. A?ias platyrhynchos Linn. 



The Mallard (Plate 15) is our most abundant and best-known 

 duck ; it occurs throughout the Holarctic region, and in winter 

 is found in northern Africa, India, Burma, and the Gulf 

 of Mexico. Resident throughout our islands, it is also an 

 abundant migrant, winter visitors arriving in autumn, when 

 some of our home-bred stock leave for the south. 



The really masculine name Mallard is more distinctive than 

 the older comprehensive Wild Duck, and is now applied to 

 both sexes. The drake is not difficult to identify when in full 

 dress, with glossy bottle-green head, white collar, grey scapulars 

 and flanks, and the perky upcurled feathers on the tail. His 

 breast is warm brown, whilst that of the dark-headed Shoveler 

 drake is white above a chestnut band. The duck, in mottled 

 browns and buffs, is less distinctive, and may be confused with the 

 Gadwall, Shoveler, or even Pintail ; in summer, when the drake 

 has donned his extra or " eclipse" dress, a protection during the 

 moult, he is more sombre and feminine. But the Gadwall has 

 a greyer, more vermiculated mantle and a white patch on the 

 wing, the Shoveler a broad and heavy bill, a short neck and 

 a marked tip forward when swimming, whilst the Pintail duck 

 is long-necked and slender, and her pointed tail is generally 

 visible. In flight drake or duck may be told by the wing 

 pattern, a purple green-shot speculum, bordered above and 

 below with black and white — two distinct white bands, one the 

 outer edge of the wing. The white borders of the wedge-shaped 

 tail are also plain. 



The haunts of this duck are varied ; in winter it abounds 

 along our shores and on marshes, on large or small sheets of 

 water in the lowlands, and on reservoirs and moors on the hills. 

 Its usual feeding-time is from dusk to dawn, and during the 

 day it rests in packs or scattered flocks on open water, swimming- 

 id ly with head drawn back or snoozing with its bill tucked 



