92 ANATIDAN 
Food—The Mallard is essentially a _ night-feeder, 
‘flighting,’ as the gunner terms it, at dusk to its feeding- 
srounds. Those birds which frequent the tidal waters by day 
part company at night with Wigeon and other sea-ducks, 
which remain to feed on the coast. Potato- fields, stubble, 
bogs, ditches, the shores of fresh-water lakes, are all fe 
quented by the Mallard, and the corn-fields are greedily 
attacked in the harvest season. 
Fia. 14.—MALLARD, 
Flight.—The Mallard is strong and swift on the wing; 
when flying inland to its feeding- grounds, it travels at 
a rapid rate generally at no great ‘height from the ground. 
The clear highly-pitched whistle produced by the vibrations 
of the pinions, 1s a pleasing sound well known to sportsmen. 
In autumn the Mallard undergoes a heavy moult’, shedding 
its quills almost simultaneously; it is then scarcely capable 
of flight, and remains on secluded rivers or on small lakes, 
10On August 28th, 1901, in the co. Clare, in company with the 
Rey. S. W. King, we suddenly disturbed a Mallard out of a tuft of rushes 
ona turf bog. With great difficulty the Duck kept on the wing for some 
twenty yards. We marked it down, and after a short chase, succeeded 
in capturing it. We found it moulting so freely that several of the wing 
and tail-feathers came out while holding the bird gently in our hands. 
