46 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



often places it on a mass of cut stagnant weeds, and also 

 among the reeds and half-immersed herbage at the sides of 

 the ponds and streams. The eggs are generally from five 

 to seven in number, whitish ; and the birds, male and 

 female, take turns in the process of incubation, and when 

 absent the eggs are carefully covered over with grass and 

 flags, which they do with their beaks. Their short wings 

 make them bad flyers. Pope gives this description of their 

 mode of progression : 



" As when a dabchick waddles through the copse, 

 On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops." 



But they are wonderful divers, and on the slightest alarm 

 are down below the surface in a moment. Drayton, in his 

 " Polyolbion," Song xxv., says : 



" The diving dabchick here amongst the rest you see, , 

 Now up, now down again, that hard it is to prove, 

 Whether under water most it liveth, or above." 



The dabchick has its place in Mythology. In Ovid's 

 4t Metamorphoses " it is stated that (Esacus was trans- 

 formed into a dive-dapper. That is to say, the Latin word 

 mergus is so translated ; but in Lempriere mergus is a 

 cormorant. The word mergus really means a diver ; and 

 Ovid could not give a better example of a diver than the 

 dabchick. 



THE MALLARD. 



All our large southern streams run through rich valleys 

 and water meadows well adapted for the nesting of our 

 water-birds, the wild duck amongst them. Every one knows 

 the WILD DUCK (MALLARD) (Anas Boschas) ; of the family 

 Anatidce. 



In sporting language the mallard is the male of the 

 wild duck; but in the language of natural history the 

 mallard is now the specific name of both male and female 

 to distinguish it from other forms of wild ducks. Notwith- 

 standing this, we, as sportsmen, must continue on the old 

 tracks and call the male bird the mallard and the female 



