RUDDY SHELDRAKE.— MALLAED. 343 



a perfectly wild state ; it had evidently never been pinioned. 

 This species is known also as the Casarca Duck, Kasarka 

 being its Russian name. Latham says that it breeds on the 

 banks of the Volga ; and Temminck, that it builds its nest 

 in hollow trees, in the deserted holes of animals on the 

 banks, and in those of the rocks which bound some of the 

 great Russian rivers. 



MALLARD, or WILD DUCK. 



Anas hoscas. 



The Mallard is resident, and a few breed on the margins of 

 many of the large pieces of water throughout the county, 

 generally among the sedges and other coarse herbage at the 

 " tail " of the ponds, which signifies that part of them into 

 which the stream, the damming up of which forms the ponds, 

 enters. It very frequently places its nest in a wood, far 

 from the water, or by the side of some bushy unfrequented 

 pit. When there are eggs, they are covered with dead leaves 

 or rushes before incubation has commenced; afterwards 

 with a profusion of down. The nest has been occasionally 

 found on the head of a pollard willow or other tree, some- 

 times at a considerable height from the ground. Large 

 numbers are added to our indigenous birds in October, 

 which remain throughout the winter and depart before the 

 end of March. They do not often assemble in such large 

 flocks as other wild fowl. The Wild Duck, when flying, 

 has its head and neck stretched out in a line with its body. 

 It feeds mostly on vegetable matter, small fish, and frogs ; 

 it is very dexterous in snapping up insects on the wing, 

 and is especially fond of acorns. St. John states, in his 

 ' Sport, &c., in Morayshire,' p. 8, that it feeds on the 



