286 DUCK GROUP 



from ten to a dozen, or even sixteen, is laid, the drake deserts his 

 partner, and commences to shed his breedint,^- plumage. Careful 

 observations made many }-ears ago show that in Yorkshire the breast 

 and back of the drake begin to change colour about May 24 ; by 

 June 23 the head and neck have lost nearly all their green feathers, 

 and by July 6 the full non-breeding plumage, similar to that of the 

 duck at all seasons, has been acquired. A month later this dull garb 

 begins to show signs of change, and by the second week in October 

 the brilliant breeding- plumage will once more have been resumed. 

 During the first month, when the flight-feathers arc alone shed, the 

 bird is unable for a time to fly ; as is apparently the female when she 

 undergoes her single moult in the autumn. 



From the short period during which the non-breeding plumage is 

 worn, it would seem as though the mallard were on the way to become 

 a bird in which the breeding-dress is retained throughout the }-ear ; 

 and from this the suggestion naturally arises that many, if not all 

 birds with permanently brilliant plumage, such as parrot.'^, have entirely 

 discarded their original type of plumage in favour of a dress at first 

 assumed only for the breeding-season. 



In common with gadwall and teal and other allied species, mallard 

 have a habit of feeding in shallow water by plunging the head and 

 neck downwards and leaving the hind part of the body standing 

 vertically up from the water. The present species, which is the most 

 abundant of all the wild ducks in the British Isles and western Europe 

 generally, haunts streams, rivers, marshes, estuaries, and even the sea- 

 coasts, where it subsists chiefly on vegetable substances, although it 

 will also devour fishes, frogs, snails, crustaceans, insects, etc. In its 

 domesticated descendants this partially omnivorous habit has become 

 much more developed. Mallard can dive as well as swim, and the 

 pace at which they fly is known to every sportsman. Despite the 

 fact that they do not share the special protection in this country 

 extended to the game-birds, wild duck, although less numerous than 

 formerly, still breed in considerable numbers in many parts of our 

 islands, while there seems no diminution in the numbers of the flights 

 from the north by which they are annually reinforced in winter. 



The name gadwall has been supposed to be derived 



from " gabble," and the derivation has apparently 

 (Cnaulelasmus . . 1 t .• » ■ • t-i • 



given rise to the Latm designation strepcrus. Ihis 

 streperus). '^i , , .''.■' , 



title appears, however, to be a misnomer, as the 



species is said to be unusually silent — for a duck. From the mallard 



