MALLARD DUCK. 30 
they had been frolicking in wheat and cornfields, 
gorging themselves for six weeks. 
The different methods of hunting mallards will be 
found throughout this book, under appropriate head- 
ings. 
Anas Boschas: Bill, about the length of the head, 
higher than broad at the base, depressed and widened 
toward the end, rounded at the tip. Upper mandible, 
with a dorsal outline, sloping and a litle concave ; the 
ridge of the base broad and flat toward the end, broadly 
convex, as are the sides; the edges soft and rather ob- 
tuse ; the marginal lamellz transverse, 50 on each; the 
ungines oval, curved, abrupt at the end. Nasal groove 
elliptical, sub-basal, filled by the soft membrane of the 
bill; nostrils sub-basal, placed near the ridge, longi- 
tudinal, elliptical, pervious. Lower mandible, slightly 
curved upward with the angles very long, narrow and 
rather pointed; the lamell about sixty. 
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed; neck 
rather long and slender; body, full, depressed; feet 
short, stout, placed a little behind the centre of the 
body; legs bare a little above the joint; tarsus short, a 
little compressed anteriorly with scutilla, laterally and 
behind with small reticulated scales. Hind toe extreme- 
ly small with a very narrow membrane; third toe long- 
est; fourth a little shorter, but longer than the second, 
all the toes connected by reticulated membranes; the 
outer with a thick margin, the inner with a margin ex- 
tended into a slightly lobed web. Clawssmall, arched, 
compressed, rather acute ; that of the middle toe much 
longer with dilated, thin, inner edge. 
Plumage, dense, soft, elastic ; of the head and neck, 
short, blended and splendent; of the other parts in 
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