RIVER-DUCKS. 



397 



plants growing upon some small bank which is hardly above the surface. The 

 male is very attentive to his mate, assists her in making the nest, and when a 

 sudden rise of the river renders such a step necessary, joins her with great 

 assiduity in raising their cradle sufficiently high to prevent the eggs from being 

 chilled by contact with the water. In this proceeding they sometimes exhibit 

 a very remarkable degree of foresight. A female swan, who had constructed 

 her nest on the river at Bishop's Stortford, was sitting on four or five eggs, 

 and was observed to be very busy in collecting weeds, grasses, and such-like 

 materials ; a fanning man was ordered to take down half a load of haulm, with 

 which she most industriously raised her nest and the eggs two feet and a half: 

 that very night there came down a tremendous fall of rain, which flooded the 

 country and did great damage. I\Ian made no preparation, the bird did. 

 Instinct showed itself a faithful guardian : the swan's eggs were above, and 

 only just above, the water. In localities subject to sudden inundations, the 

 nest of the swan is an immense pile of reeds, grass, and down ; and at the end 

 of the season, when the last-mentioned material is blown about by the wind, 

 the floating flakes sometimes resemble a snow-storm. The eggs are six or 

 seven in number. When hatched, the young birds accompany their parents, 

 and occasionally the mother will take her young brood upon her back and 

 swim about with them. The whole family remains together throughout the 

 winter. 



Snh-Fainily V. 



THE RIVER-DUCKS. ANATIN^. 



General Characteristics.— Bill lengthened, more or less broad, depressed towards 

 the tip, which is furnished with a hard nail, and the inner portions of the lateral 

 margins more or less lamellated ; the tarsi compressed, and generally the length of 

 the inner toe ; the hind toe lengthened, and slightly bordered with a membranous 

 lobe from the base to the tip. 



The birds composing this sub-family are too well known to need 

 description. 



The most beautiful of the race is — 



The Chinese Teal or Mandarin Duck {Aix galericulatd), than which, 

 when the male is in full nuptial dress, a more magnificently clothed species can 

 hardly be found. These birds are natives of China, where they are held in 

 such esteem that they are scarcely obtainable at any price. They have the 

 power of perching, and it is a curious sight to see them on the branches of the 

 trees that overhang the pond in which they live — the male and female being 

 always close together, the one gorgeous in purple, green, white, and chestnut, 

 the other soberly apparelled in brown and grey. This handsome plumage of 

 the male is lost during four months of the year, i.e., from May to August, when 

 the bird throws off his fine crest, his wing-fans, all his brilliant colours, and 

 assumes a sober-tinted dress resembhng that of his mate. The Mandarin duck 

 has been successfully reared at the Zoological Gardens in London, some being 



