THE MALLARD. 387 



THE MALLARD. 



THIS bird yields to none of our wild water-fowl in loveliness of 

 plumage, while it far surpasses most of them in the excellent flavour 

 of its flesh. Having been completely subjugated by man, it can 

 now be obtained either in its enlarged dimensions, acquired by super- 

 abundance of food picked up at the barn-door of its owner, or in its 

 original small and compact form, on which a precarious subsistence 

 in the field of freedom has hitherto worked no visible change. 



There cannot be a doubt that the wild duck and the domestic 

 duck have had one and the same origin. They are still intimate, 

 for they breed together and flock together, and are both subject to 

 the double annual moulting : of which more anon. The domes- 

 ticated duck only loses its inclination for flying when it is bred and 

 reared far from any large sheet of water; but where an extent of water 

 is at hand, this bird will be observed to assume more brisk and 

 active habits. It will indulge in long and lofty flights, and frequently 

 take off with the congregated wild fowl in their nocturnal excursions. 



I have the finest possible opportunity of looking into the habits of 

 the mallard at any hour of the day, from the rising to the setting 

 sun ; for here this bird, and large flocks of its congeners, are per- 

 petual visitors during the winter months. They fear no danger; 

 and they seem to know that in this populous neighbourhood there is 

 one retreat left to which they can retire, and in which they can find 

 a shelter from the persecutions which are poured down so thick 

 upon them in other places by man, their ever-watchful and insatiate 

 pursuer. 



Some six years ago, I put a number of wild ducks' eggs to be 

 hatched by a domestic duck. The produce of these eggs having 

 intermixed with the common barn-door breed of ducks, there has 

 been produced by this union such an endless variety of colouring, 

 that it is now impossible to trace the identical origin of the birds 

 with any degree of certainty. Half-wild, half-tame, they will come 

 to the windows to be fed ; but still they have a wariness about them 

 quite remarkable, and they will often startle and take wing at very 



