THE TRUE DUCKS. 269 



' puck-puck," and Mr. Howard Saunders says that the note 

 during the breeding-season is " took-took." The quack of the 

 Duck is said by Mr. Seebohm to resemble that of the domestic 

 species, the voice of the drake being a Httle the deeper, and 

 sounding hke quaak, while that of the duck might be repre- 

 sented as "quauk." 



Nest.— A neat but unskilfully made structure of grass, placed 

 in a tuft of reedy grass or heath, without much linmg beyond 

 that of the bird's own down, and a little grass, 



Eggs.— Five or six in number, of a pale buffy-white or 

 greenish-white. Mr. Robert Read found ten eggs in a nest 

 in Scotland. Axis, 2-05-2-4; diam., 1-5. Down very dark, 

 spotted with white. The colour is dark brown, with whitish 

 tips, scarcely visible, and with a white star-like spot in the 

 centre of the plume. 



THE TRUE DUCKS. GENUS ANAS. 



Anas^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 194 (1766). 



Type, A. boscas (L.). 



The common Duck, of which the Mallard is the type, is 

 distinguished from the other Ducks rather by negative than 

 positive differences, as one gathers from Count Salvadori's 

 characters of the genus Anas. It has no chestnut on the inner 

 secondaries like the Sheld-Ducks, but possesses a generally 

 mottled plumage, without any large uniform patches, as in the 

 foregoing birds. Nor is the bill spatulate as in the Shovelers, 

 but is rather broad, and is of about the length of the head. 

 From the Shovelers and some of the Teal it differs also in 

 having the wing-coverts dull grey, and not blue. 



I. THE WILD DUCK, OR MALLARD, ANAS BOSCAS. 



Anas boschas, Linn. S. N. i. p. 205 (1766); Macg. Br. B. v. p. 



31 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 469, pi. 422 (1873); 



Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part viii. (1888). 

 Anas boscas, B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 125 (1883) ; Seebohm, B-. 



B. iii. p. 559 (1885) ; Saunders, ed. Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 358 



(1885); Saunders, Man. Br. B. p. 411 (1889); Salvad. 



Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 189 (1895). 



