"MALLARD. 9 1 



can be made to see these, it is extremely likely to come 

 to them. 



This species readily hybridizes with certain other 

 ducks. A hybrid supposed to be mallard and muscovy 

 duck is common. So also is one between the mallard 

 and the black duck, and of these I have killed a num- 

 ber. They bear a general resemblance to the black 

 duck, but the head and neck are much darker and show 

 glossy reflections. Moreover, the crissum or anal re- 

 gion is jet black, as are the upper tail-coverts, and the 

 male is likely to possess the recurved tail feathers which 

 characterize the mallard drake. 



Many years ago, in Carbon county, Wyoming, I 

 killed a male hybrid between the mallard and pintail. 

 In form it resembles the male pintail, but its head is 

 blackish green, with metallic reflections, almost the 

 color of the male shoveller. Its breast is chestnut and 

 its back much like that of a mallard. The general effect 

 is that of a male pintail with mallard coloring. 



Perhaps no one of our North American ducks is so 

 well known as the mallard, and yet it has compara- 

 tively few common names. It is called greenhead, wild 

 drake, wild duck, English duck, French duck and gray 

 duck, or sometimes gray mallard for the female. In 

 Canada the name stock duck was formerly common, 

 referring evidently to this bird as a progenitor of the 

 domestic duck. The French Canadians call it canard 

 Frangais or French duck. Mr. Trumbull calls atten- 

 tion to the old but now obsolete duckinmallard, a word 

 supposed to be a corruption of duck and mallard, duck 



